A new lawsuit alleges that Mayor Eric Adams’ aides sabotaged the career of an NYPD sergeant who rejected his sexual advances — and because he was well-known for his perverted sexual proclivities, the police chief ordered the sergeant into custody after he rejected his sexual advances. He reportedly refused to be left alone with a female member of his team. .
Former police officer Roxanne Ludeman’s lawsuit alleges that Timothy Pearson, a senior adviser to Adams, cornered her in the copy room during an office party in December 2022 to rub her shoulders, and alleges an upsetting pattern. He has been accused of sexual harassment.
“[He] will harass you on a regular basis [Ludemann] When he saw her…and thought of making the plaintiff his driver in order to have personal access to her to continue the sexual harassment [her]” states the civil complaint filed Thursday.
The Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit alleges that Pearson’s alleged abuse led to Ludeman’s repeated promotions being revoked and ultimately to false disciplinary claims filed in retaliation for her complaints.
This, combined with a lack of overtime pay (which was said to have dried up after the charges were filed), ultimately forced the 18-year veteran sergeant to retire from the department in January 2024.
“Plaintiff did not want to retire from the NYPD at the time, but the abuse, lack of advancement opportunities, harassment, lack of overtime, disparate treatment, and retaliation became so severe that she was forced to leave. . [she] She felt compelled to resign,” her attorney, John Scola, said in the lawsuit.
“If Plaintiff had acquiesced to Defendant Pearson’s sexual advances, she would have been promoted.”
The NYPD declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday, saying the department “does not tolerate discrimination or sexual harassment in any form and is committed to a respectful work environment for our diverse workforce.”
Scola charged that both the department and City Hall “have known about Tim Pearson’s sexual harassment behavior for over a year and have refused to remove him from office.”
“Meanwhile, Pearson used his power within the NYPD to destroy the career of a prominent police sergeant who did not submit to his sexual advances,” he told the Post.
A city hall spokesperson said, “We will closely examine the contents of the lawsuit and respond in court.”
Ludeman claimed in her lawsuit that she lost more than $2 million in income due to discriminatory and retaliatory conduct.
She wants the judge to award compensatory, emotional distress and punitive damages to the defendants, which include Pearson, the city, the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and NYPD Chief Jeffrey Madley.
A slimy reputation for unwanted invitations
Pearson was a senior advisor to the mayor, also worked for EDC, and regularly attended meetings of the mayor’s Office of Local Public Service Evaluation, according to the complaint. At the time, the bureau was a new department aiming to make local agencies more efficient.
In the summer of 2022, Marmara selected Ludemann to be the unit’s chief of staff. That meant she regularly encountered Mr. Pearson, a former New York City police inspector who regularly hung out at his 13-person office at 375 Pearl Street in Manhattan.
It’s also where he developed a slimy reputation for making women squirm by asking “nasty and sexually motivated questions,” according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, the man placed his hands on the arms and backs of the women he was talking to and rubbed them, creating a “creepy” and “sexual” atmosphere.
“This emotion was not something I should have welcomed, [was] “It was sexual in nature,” the complaint says, adding that Ludeman “felt powerless” given Pearson’s high status.
He also allegedly “licked his lips while speaking and spread his legs when speaking to women in an overtly sexual manner.”
He then asked Ludeman probing and inappropriate questions, including asking if she was married and happily in a relationship, the complaint says.
Things reportedly got even worse in October 2022, when Mr Pearson took direct command of Mr Ludemann’s unit.
Scola, the attorney, said in the lawsuit that “repeated comments, sexual acts, and touching aggravated the incident.”
Eventually, Ludeman came to believe that she needed to have sex with Pearson in order to secure her long-sought promotion to special duty sergeant, according to the complaint.
But she told him she had no interest in driving him, working with him or having sex, the complaint says.
According to the complaint, Pearson lured Ludeman into the copy room at an office party on Dec. 1, 2022, under the pretext of discussing “project design plans,” and cornered her.
That’s when he began rubbing her shoulders and arms “as always, with impunity,” the paper charged.
According to the complaint, Pearson’s alleged unwanted contact with Leiderman was interrupted by her supervisor, Chief Miltiadis Marmara, which led to a months-long dispute over Pearson’s suspicious behavior. That’s what it means.
Marmara wanted to report sexual harassment by her boss, but Ludemann allegedly begged her not to do so. She said this is because her accusations would be “suicide of her career” for her.
Instead, Mr. Marmara held a meeting with Mr. Ludeman and several others to discuss Mr. Pearson, who had allegedly crossed the line and sexually harassed several women on the team, the suit says.
Marmara reluctantly agreed not to file formal charges. But since then, according to the complaint, Pearson has stated that he “is not allowed to be alone with women on his team or he will be in danger.”
“Specifically, Secretary Marmara stated that if Mr. Pearson is on vacation or away from the office, and if Mr. Pearson is in the office, one of the two men present in the meeting… “Team members are ordered to follow him at all times so as not to be left alone,” the suit reads.
Retaliation is said to have then begun.
Mr. Pearson repeatedly failed to promote Mr. Ludemann over the next several months, the suit says, and eventually they got into an argument over his interference in Mr. Marmara’s affairs.
After a heated argument with Pearson, Marmara ultimately resigned and returned to work for the NYPD on April 11, 2023, according to the complaint.
Ludeman also eventually left office and returned to patrol in an effective demotion, saying he was “done.” [her] “A career with the NYPD and the possibility that she may be promoted to Special Assignment Sergeant,” the filing states.
The department’s Internal Affairs Division began investigating her shortly thereafter, confiscating her cellphone and locking her out of NYPD systems for several weeks, according to the complaint.
In August 2023, the department accused her of misbehaving and failing to follow directions from her supervisor, according to the complaint.
By December, she had filed for retirement. On January 31st, she retired from the NYPD.
“[Ludemann] She did not want to quit and would have worked as long as she could had she not been forced to do so as a result of sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation,” Scola wrote. “[She] She was positively discharged from her employment with the NYPD. ”
