DC police captain sues department, accuses it of not offering him same job back after paternity leave

A D.C. police captain is suing the department, accusing it of violating family leave laws by demoting him after he returned from paternity leave.

Capt. Paul Hrebenak, who has been with the department for 18 years, said he applied for D.C. paid family leave so he can help his husband take care of their new baby. That benefit is on top of time off available through the Family Medical Leave Act.

family photo
Capt. Paul Hrebenak with his husband and child. (Courtesy Scott Lempert)

Once it was approved, Hrebenak took two months off to be with the baby, worked for a month, took a month off in October, worked in November, and then took December off to finish the leave process, he said.

Before taking any leave, which he said his supervisor approved, Hrebenak worked in the school safety division, which offered a largely stable Monday through Friday schedule. When he returned in January, he said was expecting to have that position back, but instead was moved to a patrol position, which Hrebenak characterized as a de facto demotion.

In a 16-page lawsuit, Hrebenak is accusing the department of violating family leave laws by demoting him instead of allowing him to return to his job. The lawsuit said the department retaliated against Hrebenak for using parental leave as a gay man.

A D.C. police spokesman said the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

“In retaliation for using parental leave as a gay man, the department punished him, retaliated against him and transferred him to a graveyard shift,” said Scott Lempert, his attorney. “There’s lots of things wrong with that.”

Hrebenak was off duty at the time he was reassigned, and asked to sign on to a call with the assistant chief and a commander. After learning he would be moved, Hrebenak said he was told that management reserved the right to move him.

The move came as a surprise, he said, because in October, the same supervisor “had given me a glowing performance review.”

When someone else in the school safety division took leave to care for a sick parent, Hrebenak said that person left on leave and came back to being in the same role.

The assistant chief who granted Hrebenak’s leave, Lempert said, retired, “and this new assistant chief came in to the role being his supervisor, and obviously disapproved of the fact that a gay man was given parental leave, and so wound up transferring him.”

While the erratic shift made the Hrebenak family dynamic complicated, he said, he also Crohn’s disease, which “can be exacerbated at times by working irregular shifts.”

“The sad fact was, not only was my family life impacted by this terrible shift and this unnecessary move, but it was also my health was pretty severely affected,” Hrebenak said.

The goal of the lawsuit, Hrebenak said, is to “make sure that MPD in the future allows LGBTQ members to enjoy the same rights as heterosexual members, and start families really without the fear of retribution and retaliation.”

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Scott Gelman

Scott Gelman is a digital editor and writer for WTOP. A South Florida native, Scott graduated from the University of Maryland in 2019. During his time in College Park, he worked for The Diamondback, the school’s student newspaper.

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