NEW YORK — One of Mayor Eric Adams’ top aides, Tim Pearson, was named Thursday in a third lawsuit alleging retaliation against an employee who confirmed sexual harassment allegations against Pearson.
NYPD Lieutenant George Huang accused Pearson — along with the city, NYPD Department Chief Jeffrey Maddrey and another law enforcement official — of derailing his career after supporting stories of Pearson sexually harassing staffers at a clandestine agency he headed , according to the complaint filed in Manhattan State Supreme Court. It was first reported by the Daily News.
The latest allegations against Pearson stem from his time at the Mayor’s Office of Municipal Services Assessment, a secretive mayoral agency that seeks to increase efficiency in other departments in the city.
The Legal Department referred POLITICO to City Hall, but it did not immediately respond.
The allegations against Pearson were first made public in March, when former NYPD Sergeant Roxanne Ludemann filed a lawsuit accusing the former NYPD inspector, one of the mayor’s closest and highest-paid aides, of undermining her career after she had rejected his advances while at work. under him.
On Thursday, Huang backed many of Ludemann’s claims, saying he and a colleague were ultimately tasked with monitoring Pearson’s behavior toward women in the office.
After requesting to leave the agency as the allegations against Pearson shook the top leadership there, Huang claims he was demoted to a career-ending post at the NYPD and then intimidated by the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau into giving up his testimony about changing Pearson’s behavior.
Over the course of three interviews this year and last year, Huang said Joseph Profeta, who is now commanding officer of a unit within the Bureau of the Interior, pressured him to change his view of Pearson’s behavior, at one point moment he slammed his fists on the table.
Huang’s lawsuit also alleges that an FBI agent knocked on his door in February, along with a contact from the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, and inquired about the service rating agency and specifically about Pearson. Huang declined to discuss either, citing his current job with the city.
After Ludemann filed her suit in March, one of her colleagues filed a second lawsuit in April with similar allegations.
