A top aide to New York City Mayor Eric Adams was slapped with a second lawsuit alleging discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation on Wednesday, according to reports.
Timothy Pearson, a former NYPD inspector who led the Mayor’s Office of Municipal Services Assessment, is being sued by retired NYPD sergeant Michael Ferrari in a lawsuit filed in the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan on Wednesday. It comes after retired NYPD Sgt. Roxanne Ludemann claimed harassment and retaliation against Pearson in a March lawsuit after allegedly rejecting his unwanted advances.
Ferrari does not claim to be the subject of unwanted advances from Pearson but does say he witnessed or was told of Pearson sexually harassing female colleagues in the services assessment office, including Ludemann. The suit says Ferrari was assigned by a higher-up to monitor Pearson’s behavior around women in the office, Politico reported.
“The hostile work environment surrounding the sexual harassment carried over to every member of the team regardless of gender,” the complaint says.
NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS RESPONDS TO SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS: ‘THIS DID NOT HAPPEN’
Eric Adams was sworn in as the 110th mayor of the city of New York on Jan. 1, 2022. Timothy Pearson is seen behind the mayor’s right shoulder at the ceremony. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
After a confrontation about the sexual harassment allegations against Pearson with another leader, Ferrari said he was demoted back to patrol, costing him $2 million in lost salary and pension earnings and prompting him to retire from his 16-year career at the NYPD, the New York Daily News reported.
Fox News Digital reached out to the mayor’s office for comment on the lawsuit, but they did not immediately respond.
The complaint also alleges Pearson made a comment to Ferrari and another officer, Lt. George Huang, complaining when a migrant shelter was scrapped in Orchard Beach in October 2022 due to heavy flooding after the contractors who handled the project were already paid by the city.
“Do you know how these contracts work?” Pearson said, according to the complaint. “People are doing very well on these contracts. I have to get mine. Where are my crumbs?”
Retired NYPD Inspector Timothy Pearson when he was a captain. (Ken Murray/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The lawsuit said Pearson from then on was called “Crumbs” behind his back around the office.
According to the Daily News, Ferrari, Ludemann and Huang went with Deputy Chief Miltiadis Marmara to the mayor’s Municipal Services Assessment unit, which started in June 2022 to inspect city agencies.
“I had no intention of retiring before 20 years, but after Chief Marmara was removed for standing up for my co-worker, I was not going to stay,” Ferrari, a Duke University graduate from Long Island, told the Daily News. “At the whim of Tim Pearson, all of our careers were turned upside down.”
Mayor Eric Adams in Brooklyn on April 5, 2024. (New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“The common thread in these lawsuits is Pearson is basically a free agent able to pull strings inside the NYPD without any oversight,” John Scola, the lawyer for both Ferrari and Ludemann, told the Daily News.
An NYPD spokesperson said, “We will review the lawsuit if and when we are served.”
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“We hold all public servants to the highest standards,” a City Hall spokesperson told the Daily News. “We will review the lawsuit.”
