FALL RIVER – A Bristol County Superior Court judge has denied a request to reconsider its decision earlier this year that tossed most of a sexual harassment lawsuit by a Fall River Public Schools safety officer.
School safety officer Carla Cruz in October 2025 filed a civil lawsuit in Superior Court seeking $10 million and a jury trial on allegations that three coworkers propositioned her for sex, offered her drugs and groped her, and that school officials were negligent in investigating the matter.
Cruz sued the school department, then-Superintendent Tracy Curley, former Superintendent Maria Pontes, FRPS Human Resources Executive Director Thomas Coogan, Title IX Coordinator Brian Lally, and three coworkers: Joseph Correia, Kyle Frizado and Jordan Periquito.
The Fall River School Department administration building is on Walnut Street.
Judge Thomas Perrino in May dismissed the claims against all parties except Periquito, in part because she let too much time elapse between the alleged incidents and her complaint.
On July 22, Perrino denied a motion from Cruz to reconsider the decision, saying nothing in Cruz’s motion changes the fact that the statute of limitations had run out on her complaints.
He also denied a motion from Cruz to amend her original complaint, because Cruz “failed to submit a proposed amended complaint.”
Carla Cruz v. FRPS: Charges dismissed in Fall River school sexual harassment lawsuit
What the Fall River school safety officer alleges
According to the lawsuit, Cruz has been a safety officer since October 2021, when she was under the direction of Correia, then serving as director of security for FRPS assigned to B.M.C. Durfee High School.
In her initial complaint, Cruz said she allegedly “became aware of an extra-marital affair” between Correia and a female co-worker, that she often heard the two having sex in Correia’s office during work hours, and that the two engaged in “inappropriate and graphic sexual conversation” with Cruz about the affair. She alleged that Correia attempted to coerce her into having sex with his mistress and himself by showing her a pair of “vibrating panties” on a sexually graphic website while at school and by offering her drugs and alcohol he kept in his office. Cruz complained about the incidents to Coogan and Pontes, and Correia was removed from his position around March 2023.
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Cruz also alleged that while she and Frizado were working security at a Durfee football game on Sept. 11, 2022, Frizado made sexually explicit comments to her about young women at the game. While the two were riding in a golf cart, she claimed, Frizado intentionally swerved the vehicle so he could grope her while pretending to push her back in her seat. The incident was investigated by Coogan, who told Cruz in May 2023 he found the allegations to be unsubstantiated.
A report from Fall River police taken in August 2025 indicates that Cruz accused Periquito of exposing his underwear and demanding oral sex from her in April 2024; and that for months afterward he would grab and pinch her in an inappropriate and sexual manner.
On Nov. 16, 2024, Cruz claims, Periquito harassed her by making hand gestures simulating sex and offering her money to have sex with him.
Anyone claiming illegal discrimination must file a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination “within 300 days after the alleged act of discrimination.” Cruz filed her complaint on July 23, 2025.
“As a result, all allegations that occurred prior to Sept. 24, 2024, are time-barred and outside the statute of limitations,” Perrino stated.
That ruling dismissed all claims except those against Periquito from November onward.
The remainder of the case is pending.
The MCAD has not yet issued a decision in the matter.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Judge upholds dismissal in Fall River schools sex harassment lawsuit
