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Ed Mullins Docked $32,000 For Offensive Tweets, But Will Still Keep Bulk Of Benefits
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Nov 5, 2021
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Jake Offenhartz/Gothamist
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Nov 5, 2021
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Ed Mullins, the outgoing head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, will be docked 70 days of vacation — the equivalent of $32,000 in pay — for using slurs against city officials and leaking Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter's arrest records.
Mullins will avoid termination as a result of the decision, allowing him to walk away with a reported $100,000 in accrued pay. The ruling follows a pair of department trials into tweets made by Mullins, who filed for retirement last month following a federal raid on his home and office.
In the first matter, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea docked Mullins 30 vacation days for disclosing personal information about Chiara de Blasio — including her driver's license information — following her arrest at a Black Lives Matter march in 2020.
In a separate trial, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent police oversight agency, brought charges against Mullins for calling former Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot a "bitch" and then-Councilman Ritchie Torres a "first class whore" on Twitter.
While CCRB prosecutors had called for Mullins to be fired, the administrative judge, Jeffrey Adler, recommended a penalty of 20 lost vacation days for each offensive tweet. Commissioner Shea, who has final say over all discipline measures, signed off on the ruling.
In a draft decision obtained by WNYC/Gothamist, Judge Adler cited Mullins' many years of service and the toll of COVID-19 as grounds to reject the CCRB's recommendation to fire him.
"It is important to keep in mind that at the time he published the two tweets, the city was grappling with a pandemic, a challenging time of unrelenting exhaustion, anxiety, fear and tension," Adler wrote. "It was in this context that [Mullins], who has served nearly four decades with the department, showed poor judgement by using slurs to disparage two public figures as part of his messaging contrary to the patrol guide."
Mullins declined to apologize for the tweets at a recent trial, arguing that the comments constituted protected free speech and were necessary to protect police officers from "harm."
CCRB Chair Fred Davie said he was "disappointed" by Shea's decision, adding that it did not follow the department's disciplinary matrix, a new rubric that is expected to standardize punishment for police misconduct.
"While these two cases alone were more than sufficient to warrant termination, when combined with the NYPD’s investigation into Sgt. Mullins release of the Mayor’s child’s arrest record, it is clear that the appropriate punishment for SGT Mullins should have been termination from the NYPD," Davie said.
In his own statement, Commissioner Shea described the tweets as "unacceptable and "unbecoming a police officer."
"Regardless of one’s position as a union leader, as long as they are still a police officer, they will be held to the laws, regulations, and standards of conduct required of all members of the service," Shea said.
Mullins could face further consequences in an ongoing federal investigation believed to be focused on his misuse of union funds. He did not return a request for comment.
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Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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