A controversial former adviser to Mayor Eric Adams barged right into a migrant shelter with no ID and shoved two safety guards – then used his affect to get them each arrested, a watchdog investigation discovered.
Town’s Division of Investigation concluded ex-aide Tim Pearson “abused his authority” throughout a 2023 conflict the place he stormed into Touro Faculty respite middle in Midtown, shoving a male guard who requested to see his identification then pushing a feminine guard right into a counter.
After his foul-mouthed tantrum — the place he whined “you don’t know who the f–okay I’m?” — he sparked an enormous police response and bought the 2 guards booked though prosecutors by no means pressed costs, in accordance with a remaining report on the probe launched Thursday.
The DOI discovered Pearson’s claims contradicted witness statements and bodycam footage.
“His conduct, as evidenced by witness statements and Physique Worn Digital camera footage that DOI reviewed, fell far under our most simple expectations for public servants,” Jocelyn Strauber, commissioner of the New York Metropolis Division of Investigation, mentioned in an announcement.
The DOI didn’t suggest any penalties for Pearson, who left Metropolis Corridor in September after authorities seized his cellphone as a part of a sweeping corruption probe into the Adams administration.
The conflict unfolded Oct. 17, 2023 when the longtime pal of the mayor allegedly misplaced it when he was requested on the entrance to Touro if he had ID.
“You don’t know who the f–okay I’m?” he yelled, then shoved his well past the primary guard into the shelter’s foyer, the place he was approached by a feminine safety guard who requested to see his identification, DOI mentioned.
“Who the f–okay are you?” Pearson snapped, in accordance with witnesses cited within the report. “Get out of my face.”
Pearson then threatened the lady’s job and pushed her, inflicting her to fall backwards right into a counter, in accordance with the report.
Different shelter safety guards then rushed at Pearson “holding him by the arms, and bodily eradicating him from the constructing,” the report added.
Pearson, a 2012 NYPD retiree, then approached officers stationed in a car throughout the road and instructed them to name a “10-85,” a code officers use to name for backup when conducting an arrest, inflicting seven items and 19 NYPD officers to answer the scene, the DOI discovered.
He blamed the guards for beginning the battle, saying he was visiting the constructing on a hearth alarm situation however six witnesses refuted Pearson’s claims, in accordance with the report.
Pearson refused to talk with DOI investigators however Pearson’s driver that day, Detective Joseph Raffaele, informed investigators Pearson didn’t begin the battle, the report mentioned.
Throughout his tenure at Metropolis Corridor, Pearson was carefully concerned within the metropolis’s dealing with of the migrant disaster, typically conducting visits to shelters. The mayor has credited him for saving the town cash.
However Pearson was additionally engulfed in controversy through the time he labored for the Adams administration.
Sources have mentioned Pearson allegedly used his energy to safe offers for migrant shelters to intrude with choosing contractors in trade for kickbacks.
Feds have additionally questioned cops in Pearson’s obscure metropolis unit, the Municipal Providers Evaluation, about metropolis contracting, sources mentioned.
A lawsuit filed in April final yr even contended Pearson informed staff within the workplace he was trying to line his personal pockets.
Pearson’s allegedly sleazy conduct has additionally been referred to as out in not less than 4 lawsuits for sexual misconduct filed in opposition to the previous cop.
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