New York New York | Officer Demoted After Writing Traffic Tickets Gets $175,000 Settlement Share full
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Officer Demoted After Writing Traffic
Tickets Gets $175,000 Settlement
Matthew Bianchi said he was transferred after he angered a high-
anking official of the New York Police Department by ticketing a
friend.
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Mathew Bianchi said that while the legal matter was
resolved, his career might suffer as a result. Maansi
Srivastava/The New York Times
By Maia Coleman and Jonah E. Bromwich
Sept. 10, 2024
New York City on Tuesday reached a $175,000 settlement with a
Staten Island police officer who said he had been a victim of
retaliation for giving traffic tickets to people with connections to
the upper echelons of the Police Department.
The officer, Mathew Bianchi, filed a lawsuit against the city last
May . The suit said that he had been transferred out of his
precinct’s traffic unit after Jeffrey Maddrey, then the chief of patrol
and now the department’s highest-ranking uniformed officer, asked
that he be punished. Officer Bianchi had issued a ticket to a woman
with whom Chief Maddrey was said to be friends, according to the
suit.
“This settlement is a vindication for our client, allowing him to
close this chapter and continue his service with the N.Y.P.D.,” John
Scola, Officer Bianchi’s lawyer, said on Tuesday. “We hope that
Officer Bianchi’s courage and this decisive outcome will inspire
other officers to come forward as whistle-blowers.”
The settlement did not involve any admission of wrongdoing from
the city, which in court papers denied most of Officer Bianchi’s
allegations, including those about Chief Maddrey’s role in his
transfer.
“Resolving this case was best for all parties,” said Nick Paolucci, a
spokesman for the city’s Law Department.
Officer Bianchi, who joined the force in 2015, said in his lawsuit and
in subsequent interviews that the standard practice in his precinct,
the 123rd on Staten Island, was to avoid ticketing drivers who had
cards issued by police unions — known as courtesy cards — which
officers distribute to their friends and family. His troubles in the
department, he said, stemmed from his willingness to issue tickets
to cardholders.
In his lawsuit, Officer Bianchi said that he had several run-ins with
high-ranking union officials, who warned him that the police union
would not protect him if he continued to ticket cardholders. He filed
complaints with the department’s internal affairs division and the
city’s Department of Investigation, but nothing seemed to come of
it.
In August 2022, he stopped the woman, who he later heard was
Chief Maddrey’s friend. He was transferred out of the traffic unit
days later.
Asked about the settlement on Tuesday, Officer Bianchi, who still
works as a patrol officer on Staten Island, said that he was glad
that the matter was resolved.
“I hope that the next guy that’s in my situation takes a stand for
themselves,” he said, adding, “It’s sad that you have to go this far
to address a problem.”
The settlement comes amid a period of turmoil for the Police
Department. Last week, federal agents seized the phone of the
commissioner, Edward A. Caban, in one of several investigations
into Mayor Eric Adams’s administration. The administration is
seeking Commissioner Caban’s resignation , though he has yet to
step down.
On Tuesday, Officer Bianchi said that he still tried at every turn to
return to the traffic unit, but had remained unsuccessful. And he
said the settlement might not be the true end of the matter.
“My job is a little vindictive,” he said. “Making some headway here,
I’m going to pay for it with my career.”
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan
district attorney’s office and state criminal courts in Manhattan. More about Jonah E.
Bromwich
See more on: Jeffrey Maddrey , New York City Police Department [NYPD]
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