Disciplinary Charges Against Top New York Police Official Are Dismissed
The New York Times
An oversight board had recommended that Jeffrey Maddrey, the chief of department, be punished for interfering with an arrest. Commissioner Edward Caban dismissed the case.
Commissioner Edward Caban of the New York Police Department dismissed the disciplinary charges against a top chief who had interfered with the arrest of a retired officer who had chased three boys while armed, according to an internal document.
Jeffrey Maddrey, the chief of department and the city’s second-highest-ranking officer, was facing a loss of 10 vacation days after an independent oversight board found that he had abused his authority when he ordered the release of the retired officer, Kruythoff Forrester, whom he had once supervised. A Brooklyn sergeant arrested Mr. Forrester on Nov. 24, 2021, after he had found probable cause that Mr. Forrester had menaced the boys with a gun.
In May 2023, Keechant Sewell, the police commissioner at the time, agreed with the oversight panel, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, that Chief Maddrey had “improperly influenced an arrest.” At the time, her office informed the chief that she had agreed to impose the board’s recommendation to take away the vacation days.
But on Monday, Commissioner Caban stamped “approved” on the findings of the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of trials, Rosemarie Maldonado, who concluded in July that the board “lacks jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the case,” according to a copy of the document.
Ms. Maldonado issued her recommendation two weeks before a public three-day disciplinary trial had been scheduled to start at Police Headquarters. The trial, which would have been overseen by the department, would have forced Chief Maddrey, an ally of Mayor Eric Adams, to take the stand to justify his actions. The department’s internal affairs unit has determined that he did not abuse his authority.
In a statement, the police confirmed that Commissioner Caban had approved the recommendation of the deputy commissioner of trials.
