A top NYC Correction Department investigator has been reinstated to his former post to settle a claim that former Commissioner Louis Molina demoted him to a job doing background checks to discredit him, the Daily News has learned.
Ruben Benitez, then the associate commissioner of investigations, claimed Molina demoted him in September, 2023 to a lower position in the applicant investigations unit for cooperating with the federal monitor tracking violence and staff use of force in the jails.
In a notice of intent to sue filed Dec. 5, Benitez alleged Molina ran a campaign to undermine the monitor and told his staff to withhold information from outside oversight agencies. Molina, Benitez also claimed, ordered staff to try to find a way to oust Steve Martin, the head of the monitoring group, from his position.
After Molina, a retired NYPD detective, appointed his former detective squad commander Manuel Hernandez to head DOC investigations, Hernandez began questioning Benitez on the information he was passing along to the monitor.
“Remember who signs your paychecks,” Hernandez warned, the claim alleged. Hernandez resigned in March 2023 after the monitor issued a scathing report about his alleged obstruction of use of force investigations.
After Hernandez departed and Benitez was demoted, Molina named longtime colleague and former state prison guards union rep Wilfredo Hernandez, to take over Benitez’s spot. Molina and Perez have been colleagues for more than a decade, largely as fellow members of the National Latino Officers Association.
On Friday, the city formally agreed to reinstate Benitez to associate commissioner and pay him $85,600 in back pay, legal fees and compensatory damages. Benitez never actually filed a lawsuit before accepting the settlement.
“This settlement ends a chapter of a protracted campaign of retaliation and tyranny by former Commissioner Louis Molina against my client, Ruben Benitez,” said Benitez’s lawyer Sarena Townsend.
“The settlement recognizes the grave error Molina made in demoting him and underestimating Mr. Benitez’s commitment to integrity and to our great city,”
Molina was replaced by Lynelle Maginley-Liddie in December. Mayor Adams made him an assistant deputy mayor for public safety at City Hall before appointing him in June as commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
He did not reply to a request for comment sent to the DCAS press office.
The Correction Department, which issued a teletype announcing the reinstatement on Friday, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
