The NYPD’s top cop who suddenly resigned late Friday night following damning allegations he greenlit a subordinate’s jaw-dropping overtime pay has a checkered past.
Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, who held the highest uniformed rank on the force, stepped down abruptly after The Post uncovered explosive allegations that he regularly preyed upon Lt. Quathisha Epps, demanding sex from the mother of three at NYPD headquarters.
Mayor Adams, a former cop, on Saturday called the ugly accusations against his longtime friend “extremely concerning and alarming.”
“The police commissioner is doing a full review of all personnel, but she’s also doing a full review of this issue, and it would just be inappropriate for me to go into the detail of these allegations,” Adams said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced his office is investigating Epps’ allegations against Maddrey, and federal authorities have also opened a probe, according to NBC.
“These are extremely serious and disturbing claims that allegedly occurred at NYPD headquarters in Manhattan,” the spokesman for District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. “We are investigating.”
Maddrey joined the NYPD in 1991 and rose through the ranks quickly, becoming commander of Patrol Borough Brooklyn North in 2015.
During his time on the force, he became close with Adams, both of whom were members of the NYPD Guardians Association, a black fraternal organization that met at the South Oxford Tennis Club in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
After Adams was elected, Maddrey boasted to colleagues he was certain his longtime friend would give him the prestigious chief of patrol post which governs all of the the NYPD’s borough commands.
Despite initially being assigned chief of housing, Maddrey quickly ascended to chief of patrol by May 2022, before being promoted in November to chief of department, responsible for managing the entire 36,000-officer force’s day-to-day operations.
But the hulking Maddrey left plenty of damage behind as he climbed the ladder.
He has been hit with myriad lawsuits and disciplinary investigations, including accusations of sexual abuse and harassment by at least three subordinates in the NYPD.
“It’s shocking,” said a retired NYPD chief who asked to remain anonymous. “How did [Maddrey] get away with what he did years ago?”
A black detective who recently retired ripped Maddrey for undermining the work of minorities on the force.
“We were making such great strides in bringing crime back down to normal,” he said. “All people are going to remember now is that one of the highest ranking members of the police department is a horndog.”
The four-star chief also came under fire for voiding the arrest of a retired cop in November 2021, after the former officer allegedly chased and flashed a gun at three young boys in Brownsville, Brooklyn, after they dinged a security camera at a real estate office the cop’s family owned with a basketball.
Former Commissioner Keechant Sewell moved to dock the embattled chief 10 vacation days in 2023 after the Civilian Complaint Review Board sustained allegations he abused his authority to benefit his former colleague.
Adams defended his friend amid the controversy in the wake of the CCRB’s findings, insisting he was “proud” to have Maddrey as the NYPD department chief.
Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya