There are haters and there are harassers. NYPD’s lieutenant Kieran Crowe has been singled out as a cop sucker.
NYC- He’s allegedly the NYPD’s lewd lieutenant.
Kieran Crowe is an openly gay officer accused of behaving badly, allegedly making sexually suggestive use of his hands, tongue and other body parts in front of three male sergeants, the Daily News has learned.
The sexual harassment allegedly occurred when Crowe was a supervisor in, of all places, the NYPD’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, which investigates cops’ discrimination complaints.
Court documents filed in connection with an upcoming disciplinary trial also question whether the office’s Deputy Commissioner Neldra Zeigler properly investigated a complaint about Crowe.
“This is indicative of why employees have no faith in their handling of discrimination claims,” said lawyer Eric Sanders of the firm of Jeffrey Goldberg, who represents two of the sergeants.
The formal charges accuse Crowe, 46, of repeatedly harassing Sgts. Sean Gallagher and Dominic Coppola, and staring at the private parts of another sergeant.
Crowe’s lawyer Rae Koshetz denies the charges, claiming the sergeants colluded for monetary gain.
According to Coppola’s affidavit, the first incident occurred in late 2001 in the lieutenant’s office at Police Headquarters.
“He informed me that he was the best ‘kiss ass’ in the department and he was going to teach me to be the second best,” Coppola said, claiming that Crowe then mimicked a sex act. The weird behavior escalated to Crowe fondling himself and moaning, Coppola alleges.
“I began to stare at the ceiling in an effort to avoid looking at him,” Coppola said.
One of Crowe’s former supervisors stepped forward to defend him, saying the charges are completely out of character for the lieutenant.
“These allegations are sheer fabrications by two malcontents,” said Crowe’s longtime friend Robert Brown, a retired NYPD captain.
Zeigler told investigators she thought an anonymous letter she got about Crowe was actually a racially motivated attack on her.
“I thought perhaps it was some question about how I was running my command in that a chief, a white man, had left, and I was there along with another African-American at the time,” she said in court papers.