White parole officer claims bosses ignored threats against her in racial discrimination suit

A white Brooklyn parole officer claims that she was racially discriminated against by colleagues who called her a “snowcone” and superiors who made it “impossible” for her to do her job.

Samantha Rys, 51, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court this week against her two supervisors, Sabrina Davis and Tanya Johnson, both of whom are black, alleging that they did nothing to protect her when one of her parolees began threatening to rape, kill and dismember her last year.

Rys said that coworkers met her with disbelief and discrimination immediately after beginning her job as a parole officer in May 2021. One once told her that she needed a spray tan and hat because white people assigned to the Red Hook area of Brooklyn only “came to arrest people or take their child,” according to court papers

Colleagues also told her she would not be able to safely do her job because of her race, according to the documents.

However, Rys claims it was her supervisors who created a dangerous work environment by standing idly by while one of her parolees, a man convicted of attempted murder, began threatening her.

The parolee, identified in court papers only as “AR,” started telling Rys that he would kill her and her family in June 2021.

Rys had already been asking for a transfer after her coworkers made her feel uncomfortable about her race and she asked again for a different assignment after the threats were made against her — but nothing happened, according to the complaint and Rys’ attorney, Michael Sussman.

“In this particular situation she was made to feel like she doesn’t matter,” Sussman told The Post.

In August 2021, the Office of Special Investigation concluded that the the parolee posed a credible threat against Rys and her family, recommending that AR should report to a different location, but he never was, according to court filings.

Rys ultimately decided to resign due to anxiety her bosses’ refusal to transfer either her or her parolee, which is what happened in the past when any of her non-white coworkers received threats, the lawsuit claims.

“When it came to this feeling that you’re in danger and nobody here gives a rats a– about me,” Sussman said. “I think that was just the final straw for her.”

The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages.

Davis and Johnson were unable to be reached for comment.