Exclusive | 40-year veteran of Manhattan DAs Office was harassed and demoted while caring for dying parents: suit

A 40-year veteran of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office faced cruel discrimination and retaliation at work while she cared for her ailing elderly parents, a new lawsuit claims.Joan Davila, the demoted former head of the office’s crucial extradition office, suffered years of “caretaker discrimination, retaliation and harassment” — including the temporary revoking of her health-insurance coverage and being told to stop talking about her recently deceased dad, according to her suit and an exclusive interview with The Post.When her official complaints were ignored, Davila tried to ask for help from higher-ups in the office, but everyone ignored her pleas, she said.“There’s no empathy,” Davila said, calling the office she loved for nearly four decades now a “toxic environment.“All this combined is because of the care of my parents,” she said of the alleged abuse she suffered. Her lawyer, John Scola, added, “When the DA’s Office violates anti-discrimination laws, it betrays the very principles it is sworn to uphold — and it must be held accountable.”Officials from the DA’s office did not respond to a Post request for comment.The city’s Law Department declined to comment on the pending litigation, which was filed last week in Manhattan Supreme Court.Davila grew up in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and said she began her career at the DA’s office thanks to encouragement from her high-school guidance counselor in 1984. Starting as a clerk, then becoming a paralegal, Davila eventually oversaw the DA’s extradition office — a complicated, high-stakes job that she loved.But all of that went away once her parents — who moved to Florida when her dad retired after years of working in a jewelry and Christmas ornament factories in Brooklyn — were ill and needed care, she said.Davila said the retaliation against her began in 2019 when she first used paid family leave to care for her parents, with her taking up to three months at a time.She s...