Disgraced former NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey shrugged off the sex-abuse accusations filed against him as an “office fling” — as aftershocks from bombshell allegations that he swapped overtime for sex continue to rattle the upper levels of the department, the Daily News has learned.
“That’s all it was. It was an office fling,” a stone-faced Maddrey told WNBC about his relationship with Lt. Quathisha Epps, who says the former highest ranking NYPD officer sexually harassed her and forced her to perform “unwanted sexual favors” in return for overtime pay.
“There was really nothing to it. There was no romance. We weren’t girlfriend and boyfriend.”
Attorney Lambros Lambrou, left, speaking to the press with his client, ex-NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, Dec. 27, 2024. (Shawn Inglima/New York Daily News)
The Maddrey interview took place shortly after his attorney held a press conference at his lower Manhattan office Friday, claiming that the relationship between Maddrey and Epps — who he described as “a swinger” — was “consensual.”
Epps made up the allegations that she was forced to have sex with Maddrey so she could get away with a “scheme” to collect overtime pay for work she didn’t do, including $204,000 just this year, Lambrou said.
“We can tell you now, those allegations are a lie,” Lambrou, said. “They’re not true. We deny every aspect of them.”
A Daily News report published in November named Epps as the highest-paid member of the NYPD with a salary of $406,515 — $118,203 more than the $285,313 former Commissioner Caban made in fiscal year 2024.
NYPD Lt. Quathisha Epps. (NYPD)
Maddrey’s denials did nothing to halt the ongoing shake-ups in the department, particularly in the Internal Affairs Bureau, which would have been responsible for investigating Maddrey for sex abuse and overtime fraud.
On Saturday, Deputy Chief Chris Morello, Inspectors Joseph Profeta and Michael Ricciardi, and Deputy Inspector Dawit Fikru were all removed from IAB and transferred to other departments, according to paperwork seen by the Daily News. A day earlier, 10 other officers assigned to the Internal Affairs Bureau — including two lieutenants, two sergeants and five detectives — were moved to other posts as a rare purge of the unit continued.
After Epps allegations were made, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch removed Chief of Internal Affairs Miguel Iglesias from his post.
Many of the officers transferred were members of IAB Group 1, which is responsible for investigating allegations against NYPD captains and above, a source with knowledge of the case said.
Profeta and Ricciardi are listed as co-defendants in lawsuits against former senior mayoral adviser Tim Pearson, who is also being accused of sexual harassment and retaliating against former NYPD Sgt. Roxanne Ludemann when she rebuffed his advances, and then sidelined the careers of NYPD Chief Militaidis Marmara and two other cops who backed the sergeant’s claims.
“If the NYPD is ever to break free from its entrenched culture of retaliation and favoritism, it must remove the executives handpicked by individuals now exposed as bad actors,” attorney John Scola, who represents Ludemann and Marmara, told The News. “We remain hopeful that these ongoing changes not only vindicate our clients but also pave the way for meaningful reform within the NYPD.”
In other department moves, Tarik Sheppard, the department’s former top spokesman who got into a public shouting match with interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon, was demoted from deputy commissioner to assistant chief and put in charge of the department’s Interagency Operations Division.
Epps filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Dec. 21. She alleged Maddrey repeatedly demanded sex in exchange for her getting overtime hours, and that when the lieutenant began to reject Maddrey’s advances, he retaliated by adding her name to a list of the department’s top overtime earners, according to the complaint.
Maddrey abruptly resigned a day before the complaint was filed. In his WNBC interview, he said he stepped down because “it wasn’t appropriate for me to be in a relationship with anyone.”
Lambrou claims that Maddrey, despite being chief of department, had no oversight over overtime requests.
Epps attorney, Eric Sanders, wasn’t swayed by Maddrey’s claims that the sex with his client was consensual.
“There can be no ‘consent’ in a workplace where one individual wields immense power over another’s livelihood,” Sanders said. “As Lieutenant Epps’s direct supervisor, Maddrey leveraged his position as the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the NYPD to prey upon her financial and emotional vulnerabilities.”
Sanders said Maddrey demanded sexual favors, money — which were referred to as “envelopes” — and gifts from Epps.
“These demands were not the actions of a man engaging in a consensual relationship; they were acts of coercion and quid pro quo sexual harassment,” Sanders said, adding that it’s laughable that Maddrey had no sway over overtime approvals.
“The NYPD has strict protocols for reviewing, flagging, and approving overtime submissions, both pre-and post-payment,” he said. “As the highest-ranking uniformed officer, Maddrey was well aware of these systems and, as evidence shows, used his position to manipulate them to his advantage. To suggest otherwise insults the public’s intelligence and undermines the integrity of the NYPD’s internal controls.”