City investigators confirm former Adams aide accosted shelter guards
The Department of Investigation concluded that Timothy Pearson, who was forced out in September amid multiple probes into his conduct, barged his way into Touro College in October 2023 instead of producing his identification per city rules. Pearson shoved a male security officer out of his way before cursing at and shoving a female security staffer so hard she fell backward, the report found.
The former NYPD inspector, who wielded considerable power over the department during his tenure, then had both guards arrested based on the false notion they were the aggressors.
'[Pearson] became verbally abusive and physically aggressive when asked to provide his identification at the entrance to the Touro shelter, and used physical force against staff who tried to prevent him from entering without it,' DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said in a statement accompanying the report. 'His conduct, as evidenced by witness statements and Body Worn Camera footage that DOI reviewed, fell far below our most basic expectations for public servants.'
The agency, whose commissioner is appointed by the mayor, operates as the city's inspector general with independent oversight over government. The department also often partners with state and federal law enforcement offices on public corruption probes.
DOI also found accounts of the event from Pearson and his driver were dramatically different than witnesses, and that Pearson visited the guards at the precinct after they were arrested under false pretenses.
Pearson had been a lightning rod for controversy during his time serving as Adams' senior adviser for public safety. And POLITICO has cataloged many of those incidents: The longtime Adams confidante held up the opening of a migrant facility in Brooklyn as he attempted to steer a lucrative security contract to mayoral friend and donor Bo Dietl. He pushed for the city to hire an artificial intelligence company — which is the subject of a separate DOI probe — at the same time a woman with whom he appeared to have a close personal relationship was a contractor for the firm. And he quietly took the reins of a clandestine mayoral agency focused on government efficiency. His tenure leading that unit spawned several sexual harassment lawsuits. He has denied wrongdoing.
Federal investigators seized Pearson's phones as part of a corruption probe roughly a month before his departure.
City Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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