Mayor Eric Adams allegedly turned a “blind eye” to the pervy proclivities of one of his top aides – who tried to “ruin” the career of an NYPD chief who confronted him after witnessing his alleged abuse, a bombshell new lawsuit claims.
NYPD Chief Militiadis Marmara was booted from his top post at a secretive agency purportedly tasked with boosting the efficiency of city bureaucracy after reporting the harassment from senior Adams adviser Tim Pearson, whose sleazy behavior has been an open secret for years, alleges the suit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“You keep stirring s–t, you’re going to get s–t on you,” Pearson warned Marmara after learning that he’d reported him for harassing former cop Roxanne Ludemann, the suit claims.
Marmara reported Pearson’s creepy behavior in December 2022 to the mayor’s brother, Bernard Adams – who at the time was serving as Adams’ head of security, according to the filing.
But Bernard explained away the behavior as just “Tim being Tim,” describing Pearson, a former NYPD inspector as a “ladies man,” the suit claims.
Marmara also accuses the Adams administration of allowing Pearson to continue raking in a taxpayer-funded annual salary of more than $244,000 in his post as a “senior advisor for public safety” – even though he’s technically employed by the city’s Economic Development Corporation – despite allegations that he’s a sexual predator.
The case is the fourth lawsuit accusing Pearson of sexual misconduct to be filed within a year.
“At every level of city government, good people have turned a blind eye to the sexual misconduct of [Pearson] and the trail of retaliation he has left in his wake,” the lawsuit charges.
Marmara claims he was ousted as executive director of the “Municipal Services Assessment” agency after reporting Pearson’s alleged harassment of Ludemann, who has filed her own suit against Pearson.
The high-ranking police official was then punished in his current post patrolling North Brooklyn, including by being given an undesirable late-night shift, his suit states.
The 91-page lawsuit describes a laundry list of other allegations purportedly made over the years against Pearson – including from a Queens pastor who allegedly told the NYPD that Pearson “manipulated his way into having sex” with her after telling her “that he was trying to get closer to God.”
Pearson, who was working in security for the Resorts World Casino at the time, then retaliated against the pastor by having her arrested for allegedly slashing the tires of his BMW, the suit alleges. Pearson was never prosecuted in the case.
Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly had “shelved” Pearson’s career in light of those allegations and others, including that Pearson once received oral sex from a woman at Police Department headquarters, Marmara’s suit claims.
Pearson also once announced while serving as commanding officer at Brooklyn’s 88th Precinct that, “This is my hen house,” making a creepy claim that only he “could have sex with the women in the precinct,” says the suit, filed by attorney John Scola.
The suit also claims that NYPD brass, and specifically Chief Of Patrol John Chell and Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, are aware of Pearson’s alleged abuse and contributed to the alleged retaliation.
Mayor Adams did not directly address the lawsuit when asked about it Tuesday, but called Pearson “well respected in the law enforcement community.”
City Hall’s top lawyer, Lisa Zornberg, added that “We are letting things run their course.”
“We’re not going to litigate allegations in the press,” Zornberg said.