City’s smoke screen on FDNY ‘sex abuse’
Failed to report ‘crime’: legal experts
The city should have immediately reported a possible crime to the NYPD or prosecutors when it learned of allegations that a gang of naked firefighters sexually abused a black rookie firefighter, legal experts told The Post.
Gordon Springs, 27, filed a federal discrimination lawsuit on Jan. 20 charging that he and three fellow probationary firefighters were viciously set upon in a locked workout room at their new firehouse, Midtown’s Ladder 35/Engine 40, on their first day. Springs claims one naked veteran, who allegedly later made bigoted statements about minority firefighters, placed his genitals on Springs’ forehead.
The FDNY defended its handling of the case internally, saying it “consulted with the city’s Department of Investigation and they agreed the FDNY should move forward with a disciplinary case.”
But the DOI didn’t even interview the purported victim, The Post has learned.
An FDNY spokesman refused to say whether criminal charges were weighed. The DOI, which is run by a close pal and appointee of Mayor de Blasio, declined to comment. Experts were alarmed. “I don’t know how DOI can conduct an investigation without interviewing the complainant,” said Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD detective and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Something happened behind closed doors that merits a criminal investigation. You have a man coming out saying he’s been sexually abused by other men.”
Once Springs complained to a boss, Giacalone said, the incident should have been reported to the NYPD or Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
“Supervisors are mandatory reporters” for “anything that involves acts like this,” he said.
The NYPD said it has “no formal complaints on file” on the incident. The Manhattan DA’s Office was never involved, a source said. The office declined to comment.
Sources said the US Department of Justice is now probing the case.
“This office is aware of the suit, the case is in its preliminary stages, we have not taken any ac- tion,” a DOJ spokesman said.
Last October, 17 months after the incident from May 4, 2015, the FDNY disciplined five unnamed firefighters and two officers for violating the department’s anti-hazing policy. The firefighters were docked vacation and pay. A lieutenant and firefighter Pedro Aristy, a “primary offender” according to city officials, were transferred. Aristy lost 45 days’ pay, equivalent to a $10,000 fine, according to the FDNY on Friday.
When The Post first reported the discipline, the FDNY refused to name the firefighters, specify what they did or comment on any racial motivations. And last week the FDNY, citing the lawsuit, would not say what role Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro played in the internal probe and resulting discipline.
The agency also downplayed the possible criminality involved, saying the incident only broke “antihazing” rules.
But one former Manhattan prosecutor, John Murphy Jr., disagreed: “This isn’t hazing, this is sexual abuse,” a criminal offense.
After the incident, Springs was too scared to call police, according to his lawyer, Paul Liggieri. But he did notify a supervisor in June 2015, and filed complaints with the FDNY’s Equal Employment Opportunity office and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in October 2015.
The FDNY says it contacted the DOI, a law-enforcement agency, soon after conducting its own preliminary probe.
The incident was “thoroughly investigated,” the FDNY said.
The abusive behavior could be a crime ranging from misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment to felony sexual abuse, according to Manhattan criminal-defense attorney John Buza, a former prosecutor.
And “if it is racially motivated, you may have a hate crime,” a Class C felony, Buza said.
FDNY brass “are incapable of investigating their own,” Giacalone charged. “This may be the FDNY’s Serpico moment . . . As soon as I read [The Post story last week], I said, ‘Somebody is going to lose their job — as they should.’
“The big question now is, ‘What else is happening that we don’t know about?’ ”