Police Commissioner recommends discipline for top NYPD chief

Commissioner Keechant Sewell has proposed a sentence for one of the top chiefs of the New York Police Department after allegations he interfered in the arrest of a retired officer who pursued three boys while they were armed, according to two people who knew of her decision.

Jeffrey Maddrey, the senior uniformed officer, has been told the commissioner was proposing to lose up to 10 vacation days, the people said, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to discuss the matter.

They said Chief Constable Maddrey plans to challenge the allegations in a departmental lawsuit that will be pursued by lawyers from the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent body charged with investigating complaints of misconduct.

While the proposed sentence may seem light, any discipline for the chief of department would send an abuse of power message to the 34,000 uniformed officers he oversees at America’s largest police force.

The review committee concluded last month that Chief Maddrey had abused his authority and “improperly influenced an arrest” when he ordered the release of retired officer, Kruythoff Forrester, the night before Thanksgiving in 2021.

Lambros Y. Lambrou, an attorney for Chief Maddrey, was not immediately available for comment. When the board first issued its recommendation, Mr Lambrou said Chief Maddrey was confident he had done nothing wrong and would “fight this to the end”.

The department said in a statement that it would not comment on open disciplinary matters.

Commissioner Sewell has rejected hundreds of disciplinary recommendations from the Civilian Complain Review Board. Mayor Eric Adams, a former police chief who appointed Commissioner Sewell, has publicly defended him.

“I’m just so proud to have him as head of the department,” said Mr. Adams last month, after releasing the board’s recommendation. Soon after religious leaders marched in front of police headquarters in support of Chief Maddrey.

The department video showed Chief Maddrey entering a Brooklyn police station on the night of November 24, 2021, after receiving a call that Mr. Forrester, whom he once supervised, had been arrested.

A sergeant had found probable cause for arresting Mr. Forrester after the three boys, then aged 12, 13 and 14, called 911 to report that he had come after them with a gun.

Mr. Forrester argued that he never got his gun out of his den and followed the boys after one of them threw a basketball at a surveillance camera outside a building his family owns in Brooklyn, destroying it.

The sergeant arrested him after the boys were able to accurately describe Mr. Forrester’s gun. Mr Forrester was initially charged with endangerment: the crime of frightening another person into immediate bodily harm.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said it found “no crime” on Mr. Forrester after reviewing video footage from police and street surveillance cameras, none of which showed Mr. Forrester holding a weapon.

However, the review board said the sergeant had probable cause to make an arrest and that Chief Constable Maddrey was unable to explain how, according to the report, the children described Mr Forrester’s “signature firearm so similar”, apparently misrepresenting the ex’s opinion. officer undermined. claiming that he never drew his gun.

When Chief Maddrey arrived at the police station, he viewed the video and then gave a lecture to the sergeant who ordered the arrest, according to the report. Chief Maddrey told him that as a retired officer, Mr. Forrester was allowed to carry a firearm and “that the children should have been arrested for criminal misconduct,” the report said.

The video then showed Chief Maddrey greeting Mr. Forrester in the police station lobby and warmly shaking his hand.

Maryanne K. Kaishian, an attorney for the boys, described the commissioner’s decision as a positive step.

“It’s definitely something the guys have been asking for,” she said. They are the real victims in this case. I don’t want to lose sight in the midst of this fiasco of the true harm done to them when they were chased by an adult with a gun.”