Top adviser to Mayor Adams is accused in a lawsuit of sexual harassment

A top aide and close confidant of Mayor Eric Adams, whose behavior has drawn the attention of city investigators, has been accused in a lawsuit of sexually harassing a police sergeant and then punishing her when she refused his advances.

The assistant, Timothy Pearson, is already the subject of an ongoing investigation by the city’s Department of Investigations following a fight with guards at a Midtown Manhattan migrant center in October. The department is expected to investigate the new allegations against him, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

The sergeant, Roxanne Ludemann, is now retired. She alleges in the lawsuit that Mr. Pearson, who oversaw a special mayoral department where Ms. Ludemann was chief of staff, often recruited female subordinates.

In an interview on Thursday, Ms. Ludemann described how Mr. Pearson cornered her at an office party in December 2022 and asked her to show him designs for the new workspace for the department, the Mayor’s Office of Municipal Services Assessment , which Mr. Adams created to improve government efficiency.

“He said, ‘Show me where my office is,’” Ms. Ludemann said in the interview. “And as he does this, his hands are on my shoulders, and then it’s like he’s rubbing it up and down, and I try to move my body away from him a little bit and he holds on.”

Ms. Ludemann said in the interview and in court filings that her direct supervisor, Miltiadis Marmara, came in next.

“And he moves his hand away from me quickly, like a snake withdraws its body,” Ms. Ludemann said.

Mr. Pearson and Mr. Marmara did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Adams and Mr. Pearson have known each other for more than 30 years. Their relationship attracted attention after the mayor appointed Mr. Pearson, a retired police inspector, as a senior adviser with a salary of $242,600 and, in an unusual arrangement, left him with a lucrative second job as security chief at a Queens casino retain.

After The New York Times reported that Mr. Pearson was simultaneously receiving a city salary and a police pension, he left his job at the casino, Resorts World New York City Casino, the city’s largest gambling operation.

Last year, the Department of Investigation, which investigates corruption, crimes, waste and abuse, opened an investigation into his involvement in the violent struggle at the migrant center.

In December the mayor described Mr Pearson as ‘a valuable asset’ and ‘a good public servant’. In October he has called calls him “a sharp, ethical, non-violent person.”

Commenting on Ms. Ludemann’s lawsuit, Kayla Mamelak, a spokeswoman for Mr. Adams, said Thursday: “We will review the lawsuit and respond in court.”

The suit, filed in Manhattan State Supreme Court, also names Jeffrey Maddrey, the chief of the police department, and Joseph Profeta, a deputy police inspector, as suspects. She accuses them of being complicit in retaliatory actions taken against her by Mr. Pearson.

Inspector Profeta declined to comment. Chief Maddrey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The allegations against Mr. Pearson come just days after Mr. Adams was accused in a 1993 lawsuit of sexually assaulting a police colleague. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Mr. Pearson’s loosely defined portfolio at City Hall included such diverse responsibilities as advising the mayor on the city’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, meeting with business leaders and leading the unit where Ms. Ludemann served. According to Ms Ludemann, members of the unit had to sign non-disclosure agreements that prevented them from discussing their work in detail.

Ms Ludemann said she initially loved her job at the unit, which was initially under the direct authority of Philip Banks, Mr Adams’ deputy mayor for public safety, and operated from a building where Mr Pearson also worked. It was a break from routine police work, she said, and she felt like she was making a difference.

But when the department was moved from Mr Banks’ direct supervision to Mr Pearson’s, she said the number of sexual harassment cases increased.

Mr. Pearson regularly touched women when talking to them, according to Ms. Ludemann’s complaint, which was first reported by The New York Daily News. He would also “lick his lips” and “open his legs when speaking to women in an overtly sexual manner.”

Before the unit was placed under Mr. Pearson’s supervision, Mr. Marmara had recommended Ms. Ludemann for a promotion to special assignment sergeant, a title that can come with an additional salary of more than $25,000 per year.

After Mr. Pearson took over, he told Ms. Ludemann that if she wanted a promotion, she would have to become his personal driver, a de facto demotion that would also have required her to spend time alone with a supervisor she said was intimidating. her.

Mrs. Ludemann, a married mother of four, declined the offer.

After the incident at the office party, Ms. Ludemann said Mr. Marmara insisted she file a complaint with the police’s Equal Employment Office. She did not do so, saying that similar complaints against police officers never seemed to result in anything positive.

As a compromise, Mr. Marmara told the unit’s supervisors that Mr. Pearson should never be left alone with a woman in the office.

Ultimately, Ms. Lundemann says in the lawsuit, she was denied a promotion, her colleagues revolted, and Mr. Pearson and his colleagues subjected her to demotion, disciplinary proceedings and several transfers. She eventually resigned.

Now she is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

“If they are concerned about the safety of the female employees who work at City Hall and around Tim Pearson, they should remove him from his position,” said John Scola, the attorney representing Ms. Ludemann.