UPDATED: NYPD FIRES ITS OWN WATCHDOG; APPROVED DISCIPLINE OF TOP NYPD COP JEFFREY MADDREY
DEPUTY COMMISIONER AMY J. LITWIN, THE NYPD'S ADMINISRATIVE PROSECUTOR IN CHARGE OF KEEPING COPS IN LINE, WAS FIRED. SHE APPROVED DISCIPLINING THE NYPD’S HIGHEST-RANKING UNFORMED OFFICER, JEFFREY MADDREY, FOR VOIDING THE ARREST OF A FORMER COP
Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey. Photo Credit: NYPD.
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The Adams administration has fired a high-ranking NYPD official who approved the discipline of Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, the NYPD's highest-ranking uniformed officer, for alleged misconduct.
Deputy Commissioner Amy J. Litwin's job as the NYPD's Department Advocate was to discipline NYPD officers. Litwin served as a prosecutor in the Bronx before being chosen by former Mayor Bill de Blasio to make the NYPD's notoriously secret in-house disciplinary process more effective and transparent in May 2020.
New York City’s police watchdog, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, substantiated a complaint against Maddrey for voiding the arrest of a retired NYPD officer he once supervised. The former officer, Kruythoff Forrester, allegedly pointed his gun at three boys, 12, 13 and 14, who allegedly threw a basketball at a security camera. Forrester was arrested, but Maddrey went to the precinct where he was being held in custody and ordered his release.
Maddrey was Chief of the NYPD's Community Affairs bureau at the time. The Community Affairs chief also tried to have the three kids arrested instead of Forrester, according to the CCRB report.
Maddrey “improperly influenced an arrest,” the CCRB found.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez reviewed the incident. He found neither Forrester nor Maddrey violated any criminal law.
Maddrey has “white shirt immunity,” according to retired NYPD officer Tabatha Foster. Foster worked under Maddrey and alleges he forced her into an abusive sexual relationship and assaulted her.
The NYPD Commissioner retains ultimate authority over the administrative discipline of officers under the City Charter. Substantiated CCRB complaints are sent to the NYPD's Department Advocate Office—”DAO”—for action. But a 2013 memorandum of understanding shifted primary responsibility for prosecuting substantiated CCRB complaints from the NYPD to the CCRB.
The legal agreement made Litwin responsible for confirming or rejecting the charges against Maddrey, according to a 2019 report on the DAO by former federal prosecutor Mary Jo White. Whenever the CCRB substantiates a complaint, the DAO can accept the finding and recommended penalty. It can also “request” CCRB “reconsider” whether there was a violation at all as well as its recommended penalty.
It is not known for certain what Litwin’s recommendation was to NYPD Commissioner Sewell with respect to the charges against Maddrey. Electronic messages and a telephone call to Litwin herself, asking for comment, were not returned.
However, it appears Litwin supported charging Maddrey because former NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell found grounds to discipline Maddrey. If she hadn’t, Litwin would have referred the case back to CCRB for “reconsideration.” She did not.
Maddrey could have accepted a punishment of reprimand and loss of between five and 10 paid vacation days. He chose, in late May, to contest the charges in an internal NYPD trial instead.
Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain, publicly defended Maddrey: “I’m just so proud to have him as chief of the department," he said. Religious leaders even paraded in front of police headquarters in Maddrey's support.
Sewell announced her resignation June 12. She declined to explain why, but informed speculation said City Hall was behind it.
Mayor Edward Caban replaced Sewell as NYPD commissioner July 17.
Now Lipwin is gone. Her firing has not been previously reported.
Mayor Adams’ press office referred questions about Litwin’s departure to the NYPD. The NYPD ignored an email invitation to comment.
Police departments across New York State, including the NYPD, are continuing to cover-up for crooked cops three years after a George Floyd-inspired law required police disciplinary records be made public, as previously reported by The Free Lance.
White, the former federal prosecutor, found the NYPD's in-house disciplinary process plagued by numerous systemic deficiencies. The ability of "external stakeholders," her 2019 report said, to pressure disciplinary decisionmakers was one of those failings.
"The NYPD should adopt protocols to insulate decisionmakers from external pressures," the report said, "and minimize the appearance of inappropriate influence over the disciplinary process."
It never did.
Litwin's firing echoes the sacking, also by the Adams administration, of the Department of Corrections’ disciplinary prosecutor. Sarena Townsend was Litwin's counterpart at DOC until Adams' hand-picked DOC commissioner, Louis Molina, took control in 2022.
Townsend was fired for refusing Molina's request to "get rid of" 2,000 cases of alleged wrongdoing by DOC officers in 100 days.
“If there is one thing Mayor Adams has been transparent and consistent about,” Townsend told The Free Lance, “it’s his brazen retaliation against the people in his administration trying to hold his law enforcement officers accountable for wrongdoing to New Yorkers.”
“With this newest termination, he has completely rid the Correction and Police Departments of their chiefs of internal affairs and of discipline,” Townsend added. “His message to New Yorkers is clear: say goodbye your constitutional protections while in police custody and on Rikers Island. “
Sarena Townsend, former disciplinary prosecutor for the NYC Dep’t of Corrections, a/k/a the Sheriff of Rikers Island, photographed inside Clayton Patterson ‘s gallery and museum of outlaw art, Lower East Side, Manhattan, 2022. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
NOTE: After publication, the CCRB’s press office responded to The Free Lance’s request for comment. It clarified it prosecutes substantiated complaints independently of the NYPD. This report was updated to reflect that.
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