NYPD wants massive overtime pay back after Jeffrey Maddrey sex scandal
The NYPD is trying to claw back more than $200,000 in overtime paid to the female lieutenant who alleged the OT cash was used by disgraced ex-Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey to coerce her to perform sexual acts, The Post has learned.
Lt. Quathisha Epps, a 19-year-vet who retired in December after The Post uncovered the scandal, was the department's highest paid cop last year.
'She was paid for work she did not do,' a police source said. 'She has received notice that she owes this money.'
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4 Former NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, who was the NYPD's No. 1 uniformed cop, abruptly resigned after The Post reported that he allegedly used overtime to 'coerce' an underling to perform sexual favors.
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Epps called the NYPD demand that she pay back $231,890.75 retaliation for her blowing the whistle on the department's No. 2 cop.
'I will not be silenced,' she said. 'This isn't just my fight — it's the fight of every woman who dared to speak up and was punished for it. If the department — or anyone – believes they can erase what happened by attacking me, they've gravely underestimated the power of truth.'
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The demand was a result of an NYPD investigation into the overtime and involved Epps' direct supervisor, former Deputy Chief Paul Saraceno, who was fired last month, sources said. Saraceno was Maddrey's second in command and allegedly signed off on Epps' overtime retroactively, the sources said.
Epps' lawyer, Eric Sanders, said the letter Epps received from the NYPD included no evidence that she didn't work the hours she claimed to work.
4 NYPD top earner, ex-Lieutenant Quathisha Epps, filed a federal EEOC complaint against Maddrey.
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'The overtime issue is a red herring—manufactured to distract from the real legal and moral crisis inside the NYPD,' Sanders said. 'Under New York labor law, the burden is on the employer to maintain accurate records, not the employee.'
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The Post revealed in November that Epps pulled in $403,515 in fiscal year 2024, including $204,453.48 in overtime pay on top of her base salary of $164,477, according to city payroll records.
4 Epps told The Post she had sex with Maddrey in his office multiple times and asked him to stop during their first encounter.
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On Dec. 20, Epps, who was an administrator in Maddrey's office at One Police Plaza, told The Post that the chief paid her the dough to 'coerce' her to have sex with him in his office at NYPD headquarters.
Sanders, a former cop, filed a federal Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against Maddrey on Epps' behalf the next day.
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Maddrey resigned the day The Post story went online Dec. 21. A week later, he held a press conference in Manhattan where his lawyer told reporters that the relationship with Epps was consensual. He also accused Epps of going after his client because of the investigtion into her overtime. Maddrey didn't take questions.
While the NYPD goes after Epps, Maddrey is expected to pull down an annual pension worth around $259,000. When Epps reaches her 20th anniversary this summer, she will receive a pension of less than half the pay of a lieutenant — under $50,000, police sources said. She will also miss out on the variable supplement of about $12,000 per year.
4 Deputy Chief Paul Saraceno was fired by the NYPD over allegations that he approved bogus overtime slips.
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In the wake of the scandal, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch made department-wide changes, including replacing the head of the storied Internal Affairs Bureau and transferring officials at Police HQ to other precincts and divisions.
Maddrey's home was raided on Jan. 2 by agents with the U.S. Department of Justice, which opened an investigation after news of the imbroglio broke. The Manhattan District Attorneys Office also said it was launching a probe but later said it dropped the case. The DOJ has refused to comment on the status of its review.
One retired NYPD officer who worked with sex assault victims said the NYPD demand for repayment from an alleged victim is misguided — especially since her accused harrasser, Maddrey, was allowed to retire with a full pension.
'If you listen to her, she says she asked him to stop when he had sex with her in his office,' the ex-officer said. 'She's asserting criminal misconduct.'
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The NYPD did not return a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona.
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