Mayor Adams on Tuesday appeared to confirm that the intervention of his brother Bernard Adams in an argument between top mayoral adviser Timothy Pearson and an NYPD chief is “part of a review” of the fallout from sexual harassment allegations filed by a retired NYPD sergeant against Pearson.
The mayor noted that his brother had left city employment when he intervened after Pearson and Deputy Chief Miltiadis Marmara argued April 11, 2023 over the promotion of Sgt. Roxanne Ludemann, then assigned to the mayor’s Municipal Services Assessment unit.
“My brother was not with the agency anymore, he went onto greener pastures and that is part of a review and you know how I feel about interfering with a review,” Adams said at City Hall. “Let the review take its course and then we will determine for that. I do not interfere with things under review.”
Ludemann sued Pearson and the city on March 21 alleging Pearson touched her inappropriately while she was assigned to the services unit, which examines the performance of city agencies. At the time Pearson was overseeing the unit, Marmara was its commander and Ludemann was his chief of staff.
She claimed in the lawsuit that Pearson retaliated against her for spurning his advances by blocking her promotion. She left the unit, was bounced from one command to another before she retired in December.
The mayor did not specify Tuesday what review he was referring to. The News previously reported that the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau interviewed Ludemann on Aug. 16, then referred her complaint to City Hall’s equal employment opportunity office, according to her lawsuit.
Later, Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said the mayor’s comment was a loose reference to the lawsuit. She noted that the lawsuit is being reviewed by the city Law Department.
Bernard Adams is not a named defendant in the suit, nor is he mentioned in the lawsuit, the document shows.
A spokesman for the mayor said March 21 that Ludemann was contacted by the City Hall office that handles discrimination complaints several times. “The individual chose not to cooperate in any investigation and, thus, none of her claims could be substantiated,” the spokeswoman said.
But as The News reported, Ludemann spoke several times with the EEO office before deciding not to formally file a complaint out of concern for Pearson’s influence in the administration.
The News reported Saturday that on April 13, two days after the argument, Marmara was directed to get a drug test and then on April 14 was called by the NYPD’s suicide crisis hotline.
“You go into purgatory. You do what you gotta do, but you leave it alone,” Pearson said in an April 12 staff meeting, referring to Marmara. The News obtained a recording of the 90-minute meeting.
“But you keep stirring s–t, you’re going to get s–t on you.”
John Scola, a lawyer representing Ludemann in the sexual harassment lawsuit, previously called the two events coming one on top of the other a possible sign of retaliation against Marmara.
Marmara was interviewed by the Internal Affairs Bureau on Nov. 14 and detailed concerns about Pearson’s behavior, The News previously reported.
The NYPD’s press office did not respond to a detailed inquiry from The News, including questions about the status of the Internal Affairs probe and who ordered the drug test and the call from the crisis unit to the chief.
Bernard Adams did not reply to a message from The News.
