Mayor Adams acknowledged knowing a prominent Brooklyn activist who sued several top NYPD officials Monday for allegedly circulating sensitive details and false information about a sexual assault she suffered in order to discredit her.
The mayor said Tuesday at City Hall he’s known the activist, Dana Rachlin, since his “days in the state Senate” — 2007 to 2013 — and added he’s sure she would say how “forward-thinking” he was around criminal justice reform. But he declined to comment on Rachlin’s lawsuit.
Rachlin said in a statement Tuesday that she’s known the mayor for “several years” and that they crossed paths “frequently” prior to his time in City Hall. She said he once told her one cannot “lead from the pack.”
“We all deserve a city where stepping out of the pack to advocate for change and true community safety does not expose a person to the risk of retaliation and serious harm from the city’s most powerful people and institutions,” Rachlin said.
Her lawsuit alleges she had a close working relationship for years with top NYPD officials including now Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey. But after she began criticizing police tactics in Brownsville and other areas publicly and privately starting in 2020, police officials shunned her and barred her from precinct stationhouses, she says.
The suit alleges police brass also leaked details of her 2017 sexual assault report and claimed through back channels to elected officials and other community advocates she had made up the allegation.
Rachlin co-founded the nonprofit NYC Together with “The Wire” actor Michael K. Williams, has been a district leader in Greenpoint, is chair of the judiciary committee for the Brooklyn Democrats and has worked with anti-violence groups in Brownsville and other parts of the borough.
Pressed on his remarks, Adams noted he himself filed an EEO complaint when he was a cop about the behavior of some of the leadership. He also threw in a plug for Maddrey and other top police officials named in the suit, though not by name.
“That is the purpose of due process,” he said. “I know these officers -— the individuals, the men and women you mentioned, have done an amazing job of driving down crime, keeping the city safe and doing it in a safe environment.”
In addition to Maddrey, the lawsuit names Chief of Patrol John Chell and Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry, current commissioner Edward Caban and two prior commissioners Keechant Sewell and Dermot Shea.
Adams’ top adviser Ingrid Lewis Martin said the lawsuit was “news to us” and that the allegations predate Adams’ time in City Hall.
