The town Correction Division has suspended a high official and is looking for to fireside him over allegations that he made inappropriate feedback to a feminine subordinate, The Metropolis Reporter has realized.
Selwyn Fergus, 66, who was promoted to affiliate commissioner simply final month, allegedly made inappropriate remarks to the worker and bragged about his shut ties to Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards, in line with a number of jail sources.
Now, his official e-mail tackle seems to have been shut off.
Fergus and Richards have an extended historical past.
The 2 met within the third grade, Fergus informed the New Yorker journal; each hung out behind bars on Rikers Island within the late Eighties and later every labored at The Fortune Society, the town’s largest nonprofit serving previously incarcerated individuals.
The allegations grew to become public final week throughout a Board of Correction listening to, when activist Victoria Phillips informed the oversight board that somebody had contacted her a few senior correction official accused of “sexual issues” involving individuals near the commissioner.
Phillips didn’t establish Fergus.
“The rationale it got here to me is as a result of individuals wouldn’t have religion and folks wish to be sure that this too isn’t swept beneath the rug,” she testified on the finish of the almost three-hour listening to.
After the assembly, three Correction Division sources informed The Metropolis Reporter that Phillips was referring to Fergus.
“I haven’t seen him round for a number of weeks,” one jail insider mentioned.
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Patrick Gallahue, the Correction Division’s chief spokesperson, declined to debate the matter.
“The Division doesn’t touch upon personnel issues,” he mentioned.
It’s unclear what Fergus allegedly informed the worker or who’s main the investigation. A spokesperson for the town Division of Investigation declined remark.
Fergus didn’t reply to calls, emails, and texts.
The allegations come as Richards final month was slammed by a court-appointed federal monitor who oversees facets of the division’s operations for instructing his high employees to evade any casual communications together with his workforce.
In a essential letter to federal Decide Laura Taylor Swain, monitor Steve Martin mentioned latest steps by Commissioner Richards to make sure they have been knowledgeable of all employees communications with Martin have been “among the many most particular, direct, and consequential actions” he had seen in additional than a decade of monitoring the division.
Martin mentioned Richards — who was appointed to steer the town’s jails by Mayor Zohran Mamdani — informed his management workforce to not share concepts or methods to the monitor or to the court-appointed Rikers Island remediation supervisor with out first telling the commissioner.
As for Fergus, he was first employed by the Correction Division as the executive director of social providers in December 2021, in line with a discover within the official Metropolis File.
In that function, he was in command of the division’s push to register extra detainees to vote, The Marshall Challenge reported in November 2022.
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Commissioner Richards promoted Fergus to affiliate commissioner simply final month, in line with an inside division announcement obtained by The Metropolis Reporter.
He was anticipated to “proceed to report on to the commissioner,” the announcement mentioned.
The job entailed overseeing the division’s so-called CARE unit, which offers disaster response to employees injured on the job and different providers. He was additionally anticipated to steer the company’s chaplain workforce and ceremonial models, the memo mentioned.
Most not too long ago, he served as a senior advisor to the commissioner, the place he earned $150,000 final yr, in line with SeeThroughNY, an internet site which tracks the pay of municipal workers.
