A high NYC Correction Division investigator has been reinstated to his former submit to settle a declare that former Commissioner Louis Molina demoted him to a job doing background checks to discredit him, the Day by day Information has realized.
Ruben Benitez, then the affiliate commissioner of investigations, claimed Molina demoted him in September, 2023 to a decrease place within the applicant investigations unit for cooperating with the federal monitor monitoring violence and workers use of power within the jails.
In a discover of intent to sue filed Dec. 5, Benitez alleged Molina ran a marketing campaign to undermine the monitor and advised his workers to withhold data from exterior oversight companies. Molina, Benitez additionally claimed, ordered workers to attempt to discover a technique to oust Steve Martin, the top of the monitoring group, from his place.
After Molina, a retired NYPD detective, appointed his former detective squad commander Manuel Hernandez to go DOC investigations, Hernandez started questioning Benitez on the data he was passing alongside to the monitor.
“Remember who signs your paychecks,” Hernandez warned, the declare alleged. Hernandez resigned in March 2023 after the monitor issued a scathing report about his alleged obstruction of use of power investigations.
After Hernandez departed and Benitez was demoted, Molina named longtime colleague and former state jail guards union rep Wilfredo Hernandez, to take over Benitez’s spot. Molina and Perez have been colleagues for greater than a decade, largely as fellow members of the Nationwide Latino Officers Affiliation.
On Friday, town formally agreed to reinstate Benitez to affiliate commissioner and pay him $85,600 in again pay, authorized charges and compensatory damages. Benitez by no means truly filed a lawsuit earlier than accepting the settlement.
“This settlement ends a chapter of a protracted campaign of retaliation and tyranny by former Commissioner Louis Molina against my client, Ruben Benitez,” stated Benitez’s lawyer Sarena Townsend.
“The settlement recognizes the grave error Molina made in demoting him and underestimating Mr. Benitez’s commitment to integrity and to our great city,”
Molina was changed by Lynelle Maginley-Liddie in December. Mayor Adams made him an assistant deputy mayor for public security at Metropolis Corridor earlier than appointing him in June as commissioner of the Division of Citywide Administrative Providers.
He didn’t reply to a request for remark despatched to the DCAS press workplace.
The Correction Division, which issued a teletype asserting the reinstatement on Friday, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
