In today’s off-topic press conference with the City Hall press corps, Mayor Eric Adams defended his relationship Jeffrey Maddrey, claiming that the “troubling allegations” against the former police chief were “unknowns.” Maddrey resigned on December 20th after a subordinate who worked in an administrative capacity in his office, Lt. Quathisha Epps, claimed in an official complaint to the city that Maddrey engaged in “quid pro quo sexual harassment,” wherein she was coerced to “perform unwanted sexual favors in exchange for overtime opportunities in the workplace.” Epps was the top earner in the NYPD according to payroll data, making more than $400,000 in the 2024 fiscal year through what many are alleging was abuse of the overtime system.
Adams split Maddrey’s record into “knowns” and “unknowns” when it came to his record in the NYPD, praising him for the former and pleading ignorance on the latter. “I have been extremely, extremely proud of those knowns,” the mayor said. “Those are the things people knew him for, what he has done.” When it came to Lt. Epps’ official complaint against Maddrey, the mayor, who is indicted on federal corruption charges, stated that “you can’t predict unknowns,” and that he was waiting to see the results of the investigation into the “troubling allegations” against Maddrey.
Despite the mayor’s claims that Jeffrey Maddrey’s alleged misconduct was unknown beyond this particular incident, there were other instances that raised questions regarding his career at the NYPD prior to it. Another subordinate, an officer named Tabatha Foster who worked under Maddrey at the 75th precinct, filed a lawsuit against him in State Supreme Court filed in 2019, accusing him of “negligence, assault, and defamation per se,” as well as creating a “hostile work environment based upon sex,” which was tossed in November. In a deposition for a federal case which has since been dropped, Foster claimed that Maddrey assaulted her in a Queens park, and she drew a gun on him to make him back off. “After I put it down he choked me,” she testified. “He threw me from side to side like a rag doll and he just really beat me up.” An Internal Affairs investigation found that Maddrey had lied about the incident, which should lead to termination “absent exceptional circumstances” according to department guidelines, though Maddrey pleaded to lesser charges, having to give up 45 vacation days.
In January of this year, the New York Times reported that in 2022, then-chief of patrol Maddrey had requested the transfer of a Staten Island traffic cop for issuing a ticket to a friend of his, according to the officer’s supervisor. The NYPD has refused to comment on the officer’s allegations, citing his pending lawsuit with the city.
Maddrey also made the news in 2021 after THE CITY reported that he had voided the arrest of a former colleague, who allegedly pulled a gun on kids that had hit his workplace’s security camera with their basketball. Adams backed up Maddrey in that case, stating that he had “handled it appropriately.” Then-Commissioner Keechant Sewell would end up handing Maddrey an official reprimand over the incident, shortly before her own resignation, which Maddrey pledged to fight at the time.
In today’s presser, Adams dismissed reports that claimed that he had leaned on Sewell to let the incident go, stating “that just did not happen.”
