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| N.Y. Jail Warden Claims Rights Violation |
| By Newsday |
| Published: 05/16/2003 |
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A deputy jail warden has filed explosive new charges that his superiors, loyal to Republicans, ordered him spied upon as he helped Democrat Mark Green's 2001 mayoral campaign on his own time. Hurling some of the heaviest chicanery allegations so far in seven months of Correction Department scandals, Lionel Lorquet of Rosedale Thursday unveiled a $10 million lawsuit against the city. Lorquet, 46, has worked for the department since 1984. The Bloomberg administration offered no response, citing the pending case in federal court in Manhattan. Lorquet's suit alleges surveillance that violated his First Amendment rights occurred during the party primary campaign in August 2001 while Rudolph Giuliani was mayor and William Fraser was correction commissioner. Last summer, Fraser was introduced to Republican bigs at the party's state convention by then-jail chief Anthony Serra, an ex-GOP consultant now facing felony corruption charges. Fraser remained commissioner until November, when he resigned amid charges of malfeasance against others' use of department personnel and resources for the Republicans. Shortly after Bloomberg was elected in November 2001, Lorquet alleges, Serra summoned him to a warden's office in lower Manhattan and said he'd joined the wrong 'team' and would have done better 'career-wise' if he'd sided with Serra. Lorquet says Serra 'team' members were rewarded with promotions. By Lorquet's account, city jail brass not only helped one side in elections, they illegally punished those who backed rivals. For example, Lorquet says that the day after Bloomberg won, he was transferred to a less desirable assignment, farther from his Queens home. In an emotional news conference Thursday in his attorney's office, Lorquet said he's been reassigned and denied promotions for exercising his rights. Flanking Lorquet were attorney Norman Siegel, the former executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union who ran in the same 2001 Democratic primary for public advocate, and Lt. Eric Adams, co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, a Bloomberg critic. In August 2001, Lorquet and his wife, also a correction supervisor, planned to host a fund-raiser in their house for Green. They 'were informed that the Dept. of Correction intended to conduct a surveillance of [their home] and videotape the upcoming party,' says Lorquet's complaint. 'On Aug. 11, the day before the party, saw two individuals from the Department of Correction, one of whom was Capt. Rodriguez of the department's investigation division, outside his house in a vehicle. When he approached, it drove off and was informed at that time that the individuals had been filming his house. ... ' Lorquet said violations of liberties were policy under Fraser and his predecessor, Bernard Kerik. Lorquet, who served in the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, related this crimping of liberty to what he left behind in his native Haiti. According to the complaint, in 1999, Mark Farsi, who then was executive officer to then-Chief of Department Fraser, suggested to Lorquet that promotions depended on being on the 'team,' that is, working for preferred candidates. Robert Davoren, the current chief of department, also summoned Lorquet for a talk after Lorquet appeared in a news photo with Green during the mayoral campaign, but backed off after a union objection, the complaint says. |
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