‘Zymere’ ACS workers lose exonerate bid

Two employees of the city’s Administration for Children’s Services don’t deserve to have their names cleared in the death of a 6-year-old Zymere Perkins, who was fatally bludgeoned with a broomstick while under ACS’s care, a judge ruled Friday.

ACS was right to punish lawyers Susan Starker and Lee Gordon for their role in the case, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Manuel Mendez ruled on Friday.

Mendez rejected their request for a “name-clearing hearing” and dismissed their lawsuit against the city.

In the aftermath of the September 2016 death, it emerged that Zymere had been beaten repeatedly in the previous months.

Starker and Gordon were among the ACS employees punished, suffering demotions and 30-day suspensions without pay.

They later sued the city claiming they were picked on for observing Rosh Hashanah following Zymere’s death, which made them unavailable for questions.

Mendez ruled that Starker and Gordon were punished because they allowed the boy’s caseworker, Nitza Sutton, to return to work on his case despite knowing she had falsified documents.

They should have alerted the city’s Department of Investigation, which could have brought charges against Sutton for incompe- tence, the judge said. Instead, “Sutton subsequently returned to her full duty, and resumed responsibility over the file of the young boy,” the judge said.

Geraldine Perkins, Zymere’s mom, and her boyfriend, Rysheim Smith, have been charged with manslaughter.