FDNY CARRIES FIREMAN IN CAL 'ABUSES'
Wrist slaps for ‘punch & choke’
A Brooklyn firefighter has kept his job despite two arrests for alleged violence against women — one for punching an ex-girlfriend in the face, the other for beating another ex, The Post has learned.
Under Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro, the FDNY has hired ex-felons, forgiven firefighters who tested positive for drugs and kept his predecessor’s son on the job despite a history of racist tweets and a recent bust for drunkenly defecating in a stranger’s yard.
The latest beneficiary of Nigro’s leniency is Clyde Phillips, 36, a former subway engineer. The FDNY hired him in 2014 despite the MTA finding he took a “fraudulent” family leave to attend the Fire Academy.
Phillips was the lowest scor- ing of 282 “priority hires” a Brooklyn federal judge ruled had been passed over because of racial bias.
Phillips, who made $142,266 last year at Engine Co. 234 in Crown Heights, seemed to blow his second chance after getting busted on Jan. 18 for allegedly punching an ex-girlfriend in a Midtown Duane Reade, which caught the attack on security video.
The FDNY suspended Phillips for 30 days after The Post reported his arrest. He pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment, but in a deal with the Manhattan DA’s Office, it was downgraded to disorderly conduct once he completed an FDNY “anger management program,” officials said.
Now another ex, Farah Simon, has revealed that Phillips also was arrested months before the Duane Reade assault.
A criminal complaint filed last November in Union County Superior Court in New Jersey charges Phillips with assault and criminal mischief for “choking her . . . pushing her head against a wall and shoving her to the ground.” He also broke an air-conditioning unit and Simon’s iPhone, the complaint said. The FDNY says it did not suspend Phillips after that arrest.
Simon later dropped the charges when Phillips “begged and pleaded, because he’s got kids, he’s got a career,” she told The Post. “That was my mistake. As soon as it was dropped, he went back to his old ways.”
She’s raising the arrest now — and a prior incident in which Phillips allegedly “strangled” her and punched a hole in a TV screen — in seeking a perma- nent order of protection against Phillips.
“I am very fearful for myself. I have to look over my shoulder because of this situation,” she said.
Simon said she lived with Phillips for a year in Union, NJ, although city firefighters must reside in the city’s five boroughs or six surrounding New York counties. Records show both their names on the lease.
On July 27, a New Jersey judge granted Simon a temporary restraining order against Phillips pending a hearing this week.
In her complaint, Simon said Phillips repeatedly called her workplace. When she did not answer, she states, Phillips contacted child-welfare authorities with “false allegations” that Simon was neglecting her child.
When The Post asked Phillips about Simon’s case, he hung up.