Port Washington resident Edward Mullins, the former president of the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association, will be docked more than $31,000 for comments he made about two government officials and for tweeting arrest information about New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter, according to multiple reports.
Mullins was docked 70 vacation days after being found guilty of administrative charges on Friday, the same day he retired from his post in the department, according to officials. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea stressed the importance of all officials abiding by the department’s rules and regulations.
“No member of the New York City Police Department, regardless of any other status, may violate the rules of the department and engage in conduct unbecoming a police officer,” Shea said in a statement. “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. Simply speaking: this behavior was unacceptable.”
Efforts to reach law enforcement officials for further comment were unavailing.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board, which tried the case regarding the language Mullins used about the two officials, wanted him fired. Last week Mullins said he believed the comments he made about former Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot and Congressman Ritchie Torres last year were “appropriate,” according to multiple reports.
Mullins said he felt the need to speak out against Barbot last year when she reportedly denied a request from a former Police Department chief to provide officers with protective equipment. Mullins also said he spoke out against Torres, an openly gay person who was in the midst of a campaign for public office, because he had accused officers of engaging in a work slowdown that resulted in an uptick in murders and shootings.
Torres, who was a city councilman during the time of the incidents, told the Daily News that the penalties against Mullins were nothing more than “a slap on the wrist.”
Efforts to reach the congressman or Barbot for comment were unavailing.
Officials also said Mullins was found guilty of publicizing the information about the arrest of de Blasio’s daughter, Chiara, at a demonstration last year over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mullins and his lawyer, Hugo Ortega, argued that the information in the report Mullins tweeted was already posted online.
Efforts to reach Mullins or his attorney for comment were unavailing.
Mullins, who served as a member of the NYPD since 1982, assumed his role as president of the police union on July 1, 2002. FBI agents raided the union’s Manhattan office and his Port Washington home in September.
Since Mullins’ service in the department spanned over 20 years, he is able to receive annual pension funds of close to $120,000 a year, according to multiple reports.
The Sergeants Benevolent Association manages a $264 million retirement fund and its 13,000 members make it the fifth-largest police union in the nation, according to the group’s website.
