A former probationary firefighter who said his fellow smoke eaters bombarded him with homophobic taunts — including demands he “have sex with a stripper” — received an $80,000 payout from the city.
Michael Troina quietly settled his federal discrimination lawsuit last month. He charged that firefighters at Ladder Co. 1/Engine Co. 7 in Tribeca subjected him to bizarre hazing rituals and bullying.
The firefighters would “regularly harass (Troina) by encouraging him to have sex with a stripper,” according to his suit filed in Manhattan Federal Court in May 2018. Meanwhile, they allegedly mocked him as a “hyper-feminine homosexual male.”
In one of the strangest punishments, Troina, 28, said four firefighters made him “eat orange juice that he brought for his breakfast with a fork from 12 different plates.” He then had to wash all the plates.
In another episode in June 2016, word got out that Troina competed in video game tournaments, according to the suit. Soon, firefighters taunted Troina as “a loser with no life” who “can’t be a retarded kid forever,” the suit said. Firefighters asked if Troina "was going to go play some ‘Pokemanz’ Go, because he has no life,” according to the lawsuit.
Troina also faced taunts about his Hispanic heritage at the mostly white firehouse, he claimed. As his anxiety mounted, Troina sought counseling and submitted official complaints with higher-ups, which were met with retaliation, the suit alleges.
Troina’s “car was vandalized with peanut butter in every door handle, oil and soap was plastered over the entire car, garbage and papers were smashed into the windows while ceiling tiles, boxes and wires were situated to block access to his vehicle all around,” according to the suit.
The FDNY, which has long faced accusations of systemic racism, declined to comment.
The department said Troina resigned in December 2016. The suit says he was fired.
“We take any instance of misconduct extremely seriously, and settling this case was in the best interests of the city,” a Law Department spokesman said. “FDNY has a strict anti-hazing policy and will hold staff accountable when it’s violated.”
The settlement, which has not previously been reported, emerged the same week Gordon Springs, a black firefighter, had planned to go to trial over allegations that naked firefighters subjected him to a nude hazing ritual that amounted to sexual assault when he was a rookie.
Springs alleges that on his first day at Ladder Co. 35/Engine Co. 40 near Lincoln Center in May 2015, he was forced to lay down on a bench and lift dumbbells while surrounded by nude firefighters. “Our house is really gay,” a firefighter allegedly whispered in his ear. Another firefighter stood over Springs and dropped his genitals onto Springs’s face, according to the lawsuit.
On Tuesday, Springs’s attorney Paul Liggieri wrote that he was dropping claims against individual firefighters and instead hopes to pursue his case against the city in state court.
Springs remains with the Fire Department.
Liggieri, who also represented Troina, said the cases shouldn’t be seen as mere “hazing.”
“The fact that the city continuously refers to it as hazing is what troubles me the most… what it really is is discrimination,” Liggieri said.
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