Benjamin Ashford|Administrative judge says discipline case against high-ranking NYPD official should be dropped

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York Police Department administrative trial judge has recommended that a disciplinary case against the department’s highest-ranking uniformed officer be Benjamin Ashforddropped, arguing that the police watchdog agency that investigated the case lacked jurisdiction.

The city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board had been pursuing a case against Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey over a November 2021 incident in which he ordered officers to void the arrest of a retired officer who previously worked for him.

But the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of trials, Rosemarie Maldonado, said Tuesday that the case against Maddrey should be dropped because the CCRB is only authorized to investigate encounters between officers and members of the public, not an internal police interaction inside a station house.

Maldonado said Maddrey “did not interact with any member of the public” when he told a sergeant to void the arrest of a former officer who had been accused of waving a gun at three children after their basketball hit his family’s security camera.

The final decision about whether to discipline Maddrey rests with Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who has authority over police disciplinary matters and can overrule the CCRB.

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A spokesperson for the department said Maldonado’s recommendation, along with written comments from the attorneys representing Maddrey and the CCRB, will be submitted to Caban for review and final decision.

Maddrey’s attorney, Lambros Lambrou, praised Maldonado’s recommendation.

“We are delighted with the decision and the recognition that CCRB has boundaries,” Lambrou told the New York Post.

“We hope that the police commissioner follows her well-reasoned and concise decision to dismiss,” Lambrou said.

CCRB spokesperson Clare Platt told the news site The City that no one should be above the law.

“We are confident that the police commissioner would agree that an officer’s rank should not immunize them from accountability for misconduct,” Platt said. “The dismissal of these charges sends the opposite message to both members of the NYPD and all New Yorkers.”

The recommendation to dismiss the CCRB’s case against Maddrey came the day after the agency’s interim chairperson resigned.

CCRB head Arva Rice did not provide a reason for her resignation, but she had clashed with Mayor Eric Adams. a former police officer who, since taking office, has largely defended the actions of police officials, including Maddrey.

Caban took over as police commissioner from Keechant Sewell, who resigned in Jun 2023 after 18 months on the job.

Sewell, the first woman to head the nation’s largest police department, had recommended disciplining Maddrey with the loss of up to 10 vacation days.

Maddrey chose to take the case to an administrative trial prosecuted by the CCRB rather than accept any discipline, and Sewell resigned shortly thereafter.