NYC Mayor Defends Adviser Facing Misconduct Allegations

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams is continuing to defend an adviser as he faces another lawsuit.

Timothy Pearson, a former NYPD inspector and close friend of the mayor, is accused of sexual misconduct and retaliation in a lawsuit filed by a deputy police chief in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Politico reported.

The lawsuit accuses Pearson of sexually harassing a former NYPD sergeant while he ran a mayoral office pulling in a six-figure salary from the city’s Economic Development Corp., according to Politico.

Pearson has a history of sexual harassment complaints, including abusing and intimidating a Queens pastor during sex, according to the lawsuit. Two other police officers have filed suit against Pearson, claiming harassment.

Adams said he would continue to stand by Pearson and keep him by his side.

“People have a tendency when accusations are made to say: You know what, the pressure is hot, you need to just get rid of a person,” Adams said at a press conference. “I just don’t operate that way. I believe in a system of due process.”

The mayor got heated with reporters at the press conference, threatening to call security on one reporter grilling him about whether he knew about the allegations about Pearson when he hired him.

John Flannery, Pearson’s attorney, denied the allegations.

“Facts matter and the facts will show that [the plaintiff] was removed from his position as a result of his own misconduct, including threatening Mr. Pearson over the speed in which NYPD officers at [the mayoral unit] were being promoted,” Flannery told the Daily News.

Pearson is also the subject of an investigation by the Department of Investigation, Politico reported. The city is looking into allegations of retaliation and a scuffle Pearson was involved in at a city-run migrant shelter earlier this year, when he allegedly attacked female security guards for asking for his ID card, according to Politico.

Pearson delayed the opening of a migrant facility in the hopes of steering a security contract to another friend of Adams’, Politico reported.

Adams’ previous corporation counsel was forced out because she did not want the city to defend Pearson from sexual misconduct allegations, according to Politico.