He hit on me day towers fell
Cop harassed, assaulted woman detective for years — including lewd pass on 9/11 in patrol car — but still gets $87G pension
Retired Lt. Adam Lamboy (right) is accused of sexually harassing an NYPD detective, who settled a suit with the city for $325,000.
A disgraced lieutenant from the NYPD’s Special Victims Division cost taxpayers $325,000 after a colleague accused him of sexually harassing and assaulting her for years – even preying on her in a patrol car shortly after the twin towers fell on 9/11.
The city made the payout after a detective filed a lawsuit accusing Lt. Adam Lamboy of forcing her to perform oral sex on him on at least three occasions between 2011 and March 2014.
Lamboy, who collects an $87,000 annual pension, also humiliated her in front of other members of the elite unit and told her she could leave work early if she showed him her breasts, she said.
Despite her fears of retaliation, the detective filed an official complaint about the sexual harassment with her Equal Employment Opportunity office on April 16, 2014, a month after two incidents with Lamboy.
In one incident, she said Lamboy called her into his office and tried to sexually assault her from behind after groping her breasts, pulling down her pants and grabbing her hair.
In another, he forced her to perform oral sex and squeeze his nipple, which was apparently numb from a previous accident, she said.
Nearly 15 months later, the EEO office said in a letter to the detective that it determined Lamboy — while head of the Manhattan Special Victims Division — “engaged in sexual harassment in that he created a hostile work environment between 2011 and March 2014.”
However, the letter said additional allegations of sexual harassment were deemed unsubstantiated.
The detective’s attorney, Susan Fagen Britt, said that her client experienced retaliation for filing the complaint while she waited for the EEO investigation to conclude.
The detective, who had received commendations in the past, started getting lower scores on her evaluations. Fellow officers expressed their disappointment in her for making the filing.
And in April 2015, she was transferred to a lower-profile job in a Queens precinct where she didn’t have steady days off.
“What ultimately happened to her was what she feared, but she couldn’t stand it anymore and that is why she reported it,” Britt said. “Everybody has a limit, and she finally reached hers and suffered the consequences.”
Lamboy drew infamy three years ago when the Daily News reported he was under investigation for a boozy 2013 trip he and another detective took to Seattle to interview a rape victim.
The victim reported that Lamboy’s partner on the trip tried to rip off her clothes the morning after she spent the night drinking with the pair.
Lamboy was stripped of his Special Victims post and transferred to a Brooklyn precinct in May 2014 – a month after the detective made the sexual harassment complaint against him.
At the time, an internal NYPD investigation found Lamboy lied about working on rape investigations during the first half of 2013 to get nearly 200 hours of straight time and overtime worth $15,000.
The NYPD would not say if Lamboy’s transfer was related to the harassment allegations, the overtime or the Seattle trip.
He was allowed to retire in June 2015, collecting his hefty, tax-free pension. The NYPD would not say why he was allowed to retire.
The News reported Wednesday that the city settled 90 claims of sexual harassment or sex discrimination from 2014 to 2017, costing a total of $12.8 million.
The NYPD accounted for 20 settlements — the most of any city agency.
The Police Department said in response to questions for this story that it takes all accusations of sexual harassment seriously.
“The NYPD thoroughly investigates all complaints it receives and offers several reporting options for NYPD employees, including anonymous reporting,” police spokesman Phillip Walzak said.
He added that Police Commissioner James O’Neill launched an Office of Equity and Inclusion to promote fairness and equal employment opportunities in the department.
The detective sued the city in December 2015 and reached a settlement in July 2016. She declined to comment for the story.
In her EEO complaint, the detective said she met Lamboy in June 2001, when she was a young officer working in a Brooklyn precinct. At the time, he was a sergeant in the precinct.
On 9/11, she and Lamboy drove to hospitals, looking for any World Trade Center survivors.
But Lamboy turned the attack into an opportunity to harass her, she said.
In a parking lot near one hospital, he told her to touch his penis.
“This made me feel extremely uncomfortable as I did not know how to handle the situation,” the woman wrote in her complaint. “As he was a supervisor, I tried to make a joke out of it and told him that I didn’t want to but he forced the issue.”
Lamboy took her hand and placed it on his penis, she said.
The following night the officer had drinks with him. The pair had sex, she said it was the result of alcohol and the tragedy of 9/11.
After that, she and Lamboy, now 47, kept in sporadic contact as he went on to work in the Internal Affairs Bureau. She said in her complaint that they had consensual sex.
She started working in the Special Victims Division in July 2007, but spent most of her time in the Brooklyn office, according to the complaint.
The occasional hookups with Lamboy were over by January 2008, when she began seeing someone else.
The harassment started in 2011, the detective said, with Lamboy touching her blouse and asking her on several occasions to show him her underwear and bra.
Once, when she asked to leave early, Lamboy said he would agree if she flashed her breasts, according to her lawsuit.
He would also threaten her with a transfer or embarrass her in front of co-workers if she didn’t give into his demands, according to her complaint.
“If she turned him down, her life was made a living hell,” Britt said.
Lamboy could not be reached for comment. He denied the allegations in the detective’s complaint at the time of the lawsuit.