The New York Police Department’s chief of department abruptly retired after a bombshell report claimed that he had preyed upon one of his employees, allowing her overtime opportunities in exchange for sexual favors.
Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, 53, stepped down Friday, shortly after Lt. Quathisha Epps publicly accused him of demanding sexual favors from her, the New York Post first reported.
“He wanted to have anal sex, vaginal sex, oral sex,” Epps told the outlet. “He was always asking me to kiss his penis.”
Epps, who has been working at the agency since 2005 and recently had an administrative job in the chief of department’s office, was NYPD’s highest-paid employee in fiscal year 2024, making upward of $400,000, publicly available records show.
While the 51-year-old was making a base salary of $172,000, she earned $204,000 in overtime pay as well as an additional $26,000. Meanwhile, her boss, Maddrey — the agency’s top uniformed officer, made $292,000 in base pay this year, records show.
Maddrey’s sexual demands began in June 2023 when he became chief of department, Epps told the outlet.
Maddrey, who is married, was allegedly sitting at his desk wearing just a white undershirt and unzipped uniform pants when he told her “he dreamed about f***ing me in my a**,” Epps claimed.
She recalled responding: “I said, ‘But Chief, you’re the Chief of Department.’ He rubbed his chest. . . His work pants were open. He was like: But ‘I’m still a n***** and you look good.”
He then asked her to go to the back of his office — where he had a couch, she claimed.
“He bent me over the arm of the couch and when I tried to back away but he was telling me ‘Just let me put it in a little bit,’” she told the outlet through tears.
He then grabbed K-Y Jelly from a locker near the couch and rubbed it on himself before he forced himself into her — despite her pleas for him to stop, Epps said.
“He inserted himself, and he kept forcing it and forcing it,” she alleged. “And I kept asking him, ‘Can you please stop? Then I stopped asking him to stop, and I asked him to just slow down. ‘Can you please just slow down? You’re hurting me! You’re hurting me!’”
She recalled him saying: “‘I’m not trying to hurt you, baby. I’m not trying to hurt you.”’
The pair had sexual intercourse about 10 times after that, she told the outlet.
Sometimes the top uniformed officer texted Epps three letters: “DAP.” It stood for “dat ain’t pussy,” meaning he wanted anal sex, she said.
Other times, she recalled he would enter her office and “ask me to kiss it,” referring to his penis.
Maddrey had “a wish and a command,” meaning Epps would have to comply with what he wanted, she told the outlet. He asked her to strip in her office, to pay for a trip for Maddrey and his wife to Miami, and to give her Lower East Side apartment to his girlfriend — despite it being in Epps’ children’s names.
She tried to break free from Maddrey but feared she wouldn’t be believed. “I think he’s a predator,” Epps told the Post. “He’d say, ‘We’re going to save your house.’ Like he’s rescuing me. When he’s really just f***ing me.”
After trying to distance herself from Maddrey, she was retaliated against and exposed to be a high overtime earner, her lawyer Eric Sanders told the Post. She was suspended for 30 days and is being probed over the exorbitant overtime pay, sources told the outlet.
The magnanimous overtime pay began years earlier, though, when Epps had told Maddrey — then chief of patrol — that she was struggling financially.
“I told him I was about to lose my home,” she told the outlet. “He told me I could do whatever overtime I needed. He told me I was like his sister.” But he also told her she could help him with favors outside of the office — like helping out his girlfriend, who was another NYPD employee, she said.
“Part of the overtime was to take care of his girlfriend,” which included apartment hunting with her and buying household items for her, Epps said.
Epps intends to file a notice of claim with the city comptroller’s office Saturday, Sanders told the Post. Sources previously told the outlet that she submitted paperwork for retirement this month.
The Independent has reached out to Sanders’ office for comment.
“What a convenient time to accuse somebody of misconduct after she’s caught stealing time,” Maddrey’s lawyer Lambros Lambrou told the Post. “She’s obviously drowning and in the deep end of the pool without a lifesaver. She wants to take down as many people as she can. This is completely meritless, and we deny every aspect of it.”
The Independent has reached out to Lambrou’s office for comment.
This isn’t the first time Maddrey has been accused of sexual misconduct.
Tabatha Foster, a retired officer who used to work under Maddrey, filed a civil lawsuit against him in 2016 in federal court. That suit was dismissed and was brought to New York Supreme Court. She claimed that while they had engaged in a consensual relationship, she felt that “she had no choice but to acquiesce” because of Maddrey’s “position of authority over” her, filings say.
On one occasion, after she retired, Maddrey began “slapping, punching, and pushing” her to the ground with his knee pressed to her back to the point where she could not breathe, the complaint says. He also pointed his gun at her. A judge ultimately dismissed the suit.
The NYPD confirmed to The Independent that Maddrey had resigned and that the department will investigate Epps’ claims.
“Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch accepted the resignation of Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey Friday night, effective immediately. The NYPD takes all allegations of sexual misconduct seriously, and will thoroughly investigate this matter,” a NYPD spokesperson said in a statement.
Chief of Patrol John Chell will serve as interim chief of department, Pix11 reported.
