NORFOLK, Va. — The City of Norfolk and Police Chief Mark Talbot are named in a $15M lawsuit over a locker room incident involving a transgender recruit.
Filed last week by an officer currently on suspension, the lawsuit alleges a "sexually traumatic experience" that occurred while she was undressed in a department locker room.
Officer Meghan Grabow joined the Norfolk Police Department in 2017. She trained a class of recruits in the summer of 2024, one of which was a transgender woman. The recruit was referred to in the lawsuit as a "biological male who self-identified as a woman."
Grabow was in the locker room changing one day when the recruit walked inside and watched her while Grabow was in her underwear, according to the lawsuit.
"Here comes this man in a suit and tie... and just stared at me," Grabow told her superiors. She said the recruit looked at her "as a man would look at a woman," then went to another part of the locker room without saying anything.
Grabow reported the incident to two captains shortly after, one of which was the academy's training captain. They told her "this is a city policy; learn to deal with it; find another locker room," according to the lawsuit.
Another supervisor said if she felt unsafe, Grabow should take her gun into the shower with her, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit states NPD employees knew about the recruit and advised leadership to alert female recruits and officers, but leadership told academy staff they would be fired if they told any female officers. The recruit's roommate was informed and was against the boarding situation, but was denied new accommodations, according to the suit.
The recruit identified as a woman, but "made no attempt to dress, behave, or otherwise present himself as anything other than a man," the lawsuit states, adding they dressed in pants, a jacket and tie while attending the academy.
The lawsuit calls the environment created by the incident and subsequent leadership dismissal as "sexually harassing, intimidating and traumatic" for female department members. Around 20 officers supported Grabow's concerns, according to the suit.
Various women in the department set up a meeting with Police Chief Mark Talbot as they felt their concerns were being dismissed by leadership. During the meeting, Talbot asked the women to use feminine pronouns for the recruit, which Grabow said in the suit made her feel defeated.
Grabow was raised Catholic and has actively practiced since 2017, and said in the suit she does not believe in transgender ideology due to her religion. The suit alleges that NPD violated Grabow's religious expression multiple times throughout the incident.
Talbot said the NPD's transgender policy, enacted in 2020 for the first time, meant it would be "inappropriate" to announce that a woman had been hired, and that no policy was violated. After discussion between the group and Talbot, he said "we could have done it better from the start," according to the suit.
Martin Powers, a fellow officer who attended the meeting in support of Grabow, went back and forth with Talbot on the definition of a woman until Talbot ordered Powers to leave. He refused twice before leaving with Grabow.
After the meeting, Powers was fired and put on administrative duty. Powers is suing the city of Norfolk in a separate suit for $5 million on religious grounds and for retaliatory firing.
Grabow was put on indefinite suspension pending termination in June 2025 and remains suspended as of Aug. 19. She is seeking $15 million in compensatory damages.
The recruit is no longer with NPD.
News 3 reached out to the City of Norfolk for comment, and they responded, "It is the general policy of the Norfolk City Attorney’s Office and the City of Norfolk to not comment on anticipated or active litigation such as this."
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