SAY COP MISLED
Mayor’s guard chief accused of obstruction, scrubbing phones
The commanding officer of Mayor de Blasio’s NYPD executive protection unit could face an obstruction charge for his brazen defiance of a city watchdog investigating Hizzoner’s misuse of the security detail.
Inspector Howard Redmond tried to block the Department of Investigation at seemingly every turn starting in late 2019, ignoring the agency’s demands, as well as requests from City Hall. When Redmond finally turned over a phone to the NYPD in connection with the investigation it soon emerged he’d handed over an “essentially unused” phone containing minimal communications, according to a bombshell 49-page DOI report.
By the time Investigation Department Commissioner Margaret Garnett finally got her hands on Redmond’s phones issued by the NYPD and City Hall this summer, she found that text messages were set to automatically delete and that thousands of communications had been scrubbed.
“Inspector Redmond sought to obstruct this investigation by refusing to provide his City Hall-issued phone for production, deliberately seeking to destroy his NYPD-issued phone after he was informed that he must surrender it ... to DOI, and deleting all communications from both phones before they could be provided to DOI,” Garnett wrote in the report.
Redmond was also unhelpful when questioned by Investigation Department investigators under oath.
“He demonstrated a lack of candor, repeatedly claimed he could not recall the facts around matters under his direct supervision, and gave multiple answers that were not credible in light of the objective evidence and the sworn statements of other witnesses,” the report reads.
Garnett’s report determined that city taxpayers spent $319,794 to cover de Blasio’s NYPD security while on his presidential campaign. She recommended that Redmond, who traveled with de Blasio on the campaign trail, be fired. Garnett referred Redmond’s conduct to the office of Manhattan District Cy Vance Jr. for a possible obstruction charge. “The most serious, most sort of naked obstructive conduct only occurred within the last couple of months, July and August of this year,” Garnett said in a press conference.
A spokesman for the Manhattan DA said the Investigation Department referral was under review. A woman who answered the phone at Redmond’s home said he was unavailable.
“All I can say about Inspector Howard Redmond, I’ve worked with him for eight years. I found him to be an incredibly devoted public servant, a person of a real integrity who served this city now almost 30 years in the NYPD. That’s what I know,” de Blasio said at a morning press conference.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller agreed, saying Redmond was “extraordinarily responsive to the needs of this extremely challenging job.”
But reporting by the Daily News since 2019 on de
Blasio’s use of the detail — which prompted the Investigation Department probe — found that Redmond had a unique status in the NYPD that gave him tremendous power. Redmond does not just answer to Commissioner Dermot Shea and Intelligence Division Chief Thomas Galati, who oversees the executive protection unit. He also answers directly to de Blasio, with whom he interacts daily.
Sources described Redmond as acting as if he were “untouchable.” The News reported in April 2019 that NYPD brass had planned to remove Redmond from his prestigious post, until de Blasio blocked the move. Lawsuits filed by disgruntled members of the detail alleged that Redmond picked favorites and insulted other members of the detail while giving them demeaning duties.
The report shows that Redmond played a central role authorizing de Blasio’s use of NYPD vehicles and personnel for errands and rides for friends of the mayor’s family. His name appears 89 times in the report.
Redmond ordered detectives to transport mayoral staffers, including those of First Lady Chirlane McCray. At one point, Redmond, an executive protection unit sergeant and a mayoral staffer went to a bar after a city parade, according to the report. Redmond instructed an NYPD detective on the detail to wait outside. After hanging out at the watering hole for three hours, Redmond emerged and ordered the detective to drive the staffer to her Brooklyn apartment.
The News previously reported on Redmond’s desire for secrecy. The commanding officer ordered the protection unit’s members to cover up a car crash in August 2015 in Harlem in which de Blasio was a passenger.
“As per CO [the commanding officer] no one is to know about this,” Sgt. Jerry Ioveno texted members of the unit, referring to Redmond. “Not even the other teams. No one is to know.”
Remarkably, the NYPD cleared Redmond of any misconduct despite his defiance of requests he turn over his phone. Garnett had to ask “senior leadership of NYPD” to order Redmond to turn over his City Hall phone before he finally complied, the report states.
Obtaining Redmond’s NYPD-issued phone was also a chore. When Redmond finally did relinquish his NYPD phone on Aug. 3, he handed over one he’d used for only four days. He explained he’d just turned in his old phone to an NYPD IT office for an “upgrade,” the report stated.
None of this seemingly bothered the NYPD. “DOI was subsequently informed that the matter would not be investigated further by the NYPD, nor would any disciplinary action be taken against Inspector Redmond, because NYPD had concluded that his conduct did not violate any NYPD policies,” Garnett wrote.
“This conclusion was reached despite the knowledge that Inspector Redmond had deliberately sought to destroy official communications that he knew were sought in a DOI investigation and then misled the NYPD’s own attorneys about his compliance with the demand for records.”