New court filing in Tim Pearson lawsuit unearths decade-old sexual assault claim
NEW YORK — A new court filing Friday in a lawsuit against Tim Pearson has reopened an old wound for a woman who alleged 12 years ago she was sexually assaulted in a Nassau County hotel by the former senior adviser to Mayor Eric Adams.
The woman's allegation in 2013 never resulted in any charges against Pearson, and NYPD Internal Affairs records in the filing indicate a detective in Nassau County concluded the encounter amounted to 'rough' consensual sex rather than rape and suggested it involved an ugly breakup.
The internal affairs probe was closed because Pearson was not an NYPD employee at the time of the accusations.
But the new documents raise questions about the vetting of Pearson by Adams administration officials when the mayor appointed him in January 2022 as senior adviser, a post with broad sway over the NYPD and other city agencies.
The documents containing the allegations were filed in an unrelated lawsuit against Pearson by retired NYPD Sgt. Roxanne Ludemann who alleges Pearson groped her then used his power in the NYPD to retaliate against her, NYPD Chief Miltiadis Marmara and two other cops. Lawyers for Pearson and the city have denied the claims.
'The NYPD's Internal Affairs files confirm that rape allegations against Timothy Pearson were brought to top officials and ignored,' said Ludemann's lawyer John Scola. 'The city then brought him back without a thorough background check.'
The woman's name is being withheld by The News at her request out of concern for her privacy.
Hugh Mo, an attorney representing Pearson, said Scola is introducing 'stale, unproven' allegations that 'unfairly tarnish Mr. Pearson's character and credibility.'
'The allegations that purport to implicate Mr. Pearson in these filings are vague, conclusory, and unsupported by evidence,' Mo said.
John Flannery, the lawyer representing Pearson in the Ludemann case referred The News to City Hall.
'Tim Pearson does not work for this administration and he was not a city employee when these allegations — which were determined to be unsubstantiated by law enforcement — were reported or when they allegedly took place,' said Kayla Mamelak, an Adams spokeswoman.
Mamelak did not directly address the question about Pearson's vetting.
The narrative outlined in the IAB file says the woman informed then Chief of Department Philip Banks, later a deputy mayor under Adams, within weeks of the November 2013 incident. The file also indicates in May 2014, she told then Deputy Chief Rodney Harrison about the alleged assault.
Harrison, then in Internal Affairs, confirmed to The News that he interviewed the woman, but was then named Staten Island Borough Deputy Chief shortly thereafter and did not know the outcome of the probe.
'I do remember her saying that Pearson did force himself on her in some form or fashion,' said Harrison, who retired in 2021 as NYPD Chief of Detectives and then served as Suffolk County Police Commissioner. 'I don't recall the act that was committed. There was definitely a part that she shared that there was a relationship with him and it turned to a point where she wanted to file a complaint.'
Neither Banks, who resigned the deputy mayor post in October, nor his lawyer Ben Brafman replied to requests for comment. The Internal Affairs file indicates that since Pearson had retired, it was outside of Banks' jurisdiction and the case was closed.
For her part, the woman told the Daily News she feels authorities with the NYPD and Nassau County didn't take her complaint seriously. But she is also not happy that her case has now been dragged into the public arena as part of the Ludemann litigation.
'I did not give my consent for this to be included, I wasn't asked to be in this fight,' the woman told the Daily News. 'But if the mayor had this man vetted properly, he never would have gotten the job, and none of this ever would have come out. No one came and talked to me. How did you hire this man without doing any vetting?'
She disputes the summary by the Nassau detective in the Internal Affairs file. She says he told her then Nassau DA Kathleen Rice would not take the case since she did not immediately obtain a rape kit from a hospital.
'None of this stuff is my story. This is Pearson's side of the story,' she said. 'He (the Nassau sex crimes detective) said he would reach out to Pearson's lawyer. When he called me back, he said there's nothing I can do.'
In a summary of her allegations filed with the notices of claim and obtained by The News, the woman alleges Pearson returned from a trip to Africa with then state Sen. Eric Adams and took her to a Nassau County hotel where he assaulted her.
The woman filed complaint 1007-2013 with Nassau County Police Special Victims, records show. Nassau police did not reply to a request for comment from The News.
The woman also shared with The News a March 2014 order of protection in which she detailed her allegations and claimed she was harassed by Pearson and NYPD cops.
'I was date-raped by the respondent (Pearson),' she wrote 'I filed a complaint in Nassau County on Dec. 20, 2013. I did not report it right away because I was afraid. (Pearson) used his NYPD muscle to intimidate me.'
Nassau Family Court Attorney Robert LoPresti signed off on an order of protection against Pearson the same day, the document states.
Pearson, who retired as an inspector, was working for Resorts World Casino when the alleged encounter took place. In January 2022, Adams appointed him to the adviser post.
During his rocky tenure at City Hall, in addition to the four lawsuits, he was rebuked in an oversight report for pushing security guards at a migrant shelter then providing false information to cops in ordering the guards arrested. He resigned in September.
The woman told The News she filed two notices of claims with the city in December under the name 'Jane Doe' announcing an intention to sue Pearson, Adams and Banks, but also Ludemann and Marmara for outing her – even if she is not named in their filings.
The city Comptroller's office confirmed they received the claims, but declined to share the documents themselves citing state law protecting sexual assault victims.
Marmara made a reference to the alleged assault in his initial lawsuit filed in June 2024. The woman's sister had just passed away when reporters began calling her after the lawsuit hit the newspapers. She declined to speak to them.
'I feel like I was used by everybody,' she said. 'When they called me I had to cancel everything and just leave town. I felt like those who were supposed to help me abandoned me.'
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(Chris Sommerfeldt contributed to this story.)
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