Speaker seeks jail probe
Demands investigation of Correx bid to ‘cover up violence’
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called for an investigation Tuesday into allegations that Correction Commissioner Louis Molina and aides obstructed inquiries into violence at New York City jails by a court-appointed federal monitor and the city Department of Investigation.
“The commissioner’s alleged involvement in a campaign to cover up violence in the jails would be a betrayal of his duties and raise more serious questions about his recent appointment to be an assistant deputy mayor,” said Adams in a joint statement with Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, chairwoman of the Committee on Criminal Justice.
“These serious and deeply troubling allegations of misconduct deserve thorough investigations by all relevant authorities.”
Adams’ comments come on the heels of claims by a Correction Department official, former Associate Deputy Commissioner of Investigations Ruben Benitez, that Molina ordered him to withhold information from the court-appointed monitor and to not cooperate with the city Department of Investigation.
On Oct. 31, Mayor Adams appointed Molina as assistant deputy mayor under Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks. To date, Molina retains his title of correction commissioner.
Mayor Adams’ press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Council speaker’s statement.
Benitez’ allegations, reported Tuesday by the Daily News, are contained in a notice of claim filed with the city comptroller’s office.
Among his assertions are that Molina directed top aides to find a way to oust federal monitor Steve Martin from his court-appointed post tracking violence and staff use of excessive force at Rikers Island and other city jails.
Benitez, who kept detailed notes of his interactions with Molina and the commissioner’s aides, also claimed that Molina’s former deputy commissioner of investigations, Manuel Hernandez, ordered investigative staff not to cooperate with the federal monitor and barred access to the Correction Department’s Investigations Division offices.
Hernandez resigned under pressure in April after the monitor raised concerns that Correction Department disciplinary cases were not being fully investigated.
In an April 24 report, the monitor described Benitez as “a well-respected and seasoned investigator and supervisor.”
As one of his first acts in January 2022, Molina stripped the Investigations Division of the power to unilaterally suspended officers accused of misconduct and those arrested for alleged crimes without Molina’s direct approval, Benitez alleged.
The commissioner also insisted on approving suspensions of officers who were the subject of excessive-force referrals from the monitor, the notice of claim alleges.
Benitez alleges he reported his concerns to both the monitor and Investigation Department. In retaliation, he says, Molina progressively marginalized him.
While a spokeswoman for Mayor Adams would not comment on the specifics of Benitez’s claim, she stated that Molina takes seriously the correction staff disciplinary cases handled by Benitez and city investigators, and that during his tenure he has “forcibly separated over 300 employees for disciplinary reasons.”
Benitez says the series of events leading to his demotion began with an argument in July between Correction Capt. Lawrence Bond, a DOI investigator, and Molina’s head of training, Robert Gonzalez.
After that incident, Molina and another top Correction Department investigator, Lawrence McGugins, suspended Bond from his job. As he left DOC headquarters after his suspension, Bond ran into Benitez, who expressed surprise at what had happened and suggested Bond get a lawyer.
Two months later, on Sept. 1, Benitez was summoned to DOI headquarters in lower Manhattan, where McGugins and Zarrella questioned him about his encounter with Bond, Benitez’s notice of claim says.
Benitez was then demoted — a move he says was designed to gag him, “to allow Molina to continue his illegal behavior under a cloak of secrecy,” the claim alleges.
In a statement Monday, Department of Investigation spokeswoman Dianne Struzzi declined to address the details of Benitez’s allegations. But Struzzi refuted what she viewed was Benitez’s claim that her department was involved in undermining any investigation of the Correction Department, or taking action against Correction employees who refused to do anything “impoper.”
“DOI denies the absurd allegation that the agency, or any of its employees, were ‘part of [an] effort’ to undermine DOI’s oversight, or participated in a ‘campaign’ to target any DOC employee for a refusal to engage in improper conduct,” the statement said.
Benitez intends to sue over the demotion, alleging it violated his right under state labor law, the claim states.