A senior aide to New York City Mayor Eric Adams was accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed Thursday that claimed other city officials later retaliated against the accuser, just days after Adams was sued for sexual assault for an incident that allegedly happened in the 1990s.
The lawsuit comes days after Adams was sued for sexual assault.
Roxanne Ludemann, a former New York Police Department sergeant, accused Timothy Pearson, a senior adviser to Adams, of inappropriate touching and unwanted sexual advances.
In a series of conversations in 2022 and 2023 Ludemann, a now-retired former police sergeant, said Pearson inappropriately touched women’s arms, shoulders and backs when he spoke with them that were “sexual in nature,” the suit claims.
The suit alleges that after Ludemann rebuffed Pearson’s advances he retaliated against her by denying her a promotion.
Ludemann also named NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey in the suit as she alleged he, along with Pearson, retaliated against her by denying workplace advancement.
A spokesperson for Adams did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
“I want what happened to come to light — that it started with me saying ‘no’ and doing the right thing, and the NYPD allowed this man to destroy my career and traumatize me,” Ludemann told the Daily News.
Pearson is reportedly a decades-old friend of Adams who used to work in the NYPD with the New York City mayor. Last year, Politico described him as a “trusted” aide to the mayor and “someone who operates nearly entirely in the shadows of City Hall.” In 2023, Pearson earned $242,600 as “senior advisor for public safety and COVID recovery,” according to Politico.
The lawsuit against Pearson comes just days after a lawsuit was filed against Adams for allegedly sexually assaulting a former police co-worker in 1993. The lawsuit alleged Adams assaulted Lorna Beach-Mathura, a former police administrative aide, after she turned down his demands for sex. Adams has repeatedly denied the allegations. Beach-Mathura said Adams took advantage of her when she asked for help with a promotion-related issue in the workplace. While Beach-Mathura eventually got the promotion, she said she was forced to transfer to a different department and her “work duties were severely downgraded.”