Kerik Cleared Of Retaliation Claim

Meringolo Testimony Key
Kerik Cleared Of Retaliation Claim


A Federal judge in Manhattan last week dismissed a claim by a former Correction Department official that he was repeatedly denied a promotion to Assistant Deputy Warden because he had reprimanded a Correction Officer with whom then-Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik later had an affair.

BERNARD B. KERIK: Charge not substantiated. A crucial element in U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood's ruling was that Eric Deravin III's claim that his belief was supported by the recently retired head of the Correction Captains' Association could not be substantiated.

Denied He Said It

Mr. Deravin offered as evidence a secretly taped conversation that he said he had with then-CCA President Peter D. Meringolo in which they allegedly discussed the impact that Mr. Kerik's romantic relationship with CO Jeanette Pinero had on Mr. Deravin's bid for a promotion.

He contended that it was Mr. Meringolo saying on the tape, "How stupid is this man that he was going to actually pass you over for Pinero?"

Mr. Meringolo, however, denied he had made such a statement, and Judge Wood would not allow the tape to be admitted as evidence in a potential trial because it could not be authenticated.

PETER D. MERINGOLO: Claims it wasn't his voice. Mr. Deravin contended that his eventual promotion to ADW in 2000 only occurred because he had filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Complaint against Mr. Kerik regarding the situation.

$250G Settlement

His lawsuit was the second one to arise out of an incident that was connected to Mr. Kerik's relationship with CO Pinero. The other one, brought by then-Correction Captain Herbert Reed, led to a $250,000 settlement paid by the Bloomberg administration.

In that case, Captain Reed was brought up on sexual harassment charges after he reprimanded a friend of Ms. Pinero's, Mildred Gonzalez. The Correction Department investigator assigned to look into Ms. Gonzalez's complaint had once dated her sister. When this was pointed out to Mr. Kerik, he ordered a change in investigators, but additional charges were brought against Captain Reed.

His disciplinary trial before the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings resulted in a startling rebuke of the Correction Department's high command by Administrative Law Judge Ray Fleischhacker. He concluded that there had been attempts orchestrated by high-ranking officials to obstruct justice and suborn perjury as a way of sustaining trumped-up charges against Captain Reed.

'Gross Abuse of Power'

He accused the agency of a "gross abuse of power and misuse of the EEO and disciplinary processes to protect a favored employee."

Shortly after Mr. Kerik withdrew his name from consideration for Secretary of U.S. Homeland Security in December 2004, the Daily News reported that after the World Trade Center attacks he had used an apartment in Battery Park City meant as a resting place for rescue and recovery personnel at Ground Zero to carry on affairs with both Ms. Pinero and the publisher of his autobiography, Judith Regan.