$800G for Political 'Hit'
Jury Finds Warden Harassment Victim

By REUVEN BLAU

A Federal jury has awarded retired Deputy Warden Terrence J. Skinner $791,857 after concluding that the Correction Department and then-Commissioner William J. Fraser retaliated against him because he supported Mark Green's 2001 campaign for Mayor.

SQUEEZED IN POLITICAL VISE: Jurors concluded that Deputy Warden Terry Skinner was forced to perform demeaning tasks because his superiors were angered that he supported the Democratic nominee for Mayor, Mark Green, in the 2001 election. One of the officials meting out the punishment was later convicted of forcing subordinates to work in Governor Pataki's re-election campaign and earning $243,000 for his efforts in that campaign while on city time.

During the six-day trial, Mr. Skinner's attorney, Nathaniel B. Smith, successfully argued that department officials violated his client's First Amendment free-speech right by forcing him to endure a hostile work environment.

From Parade to Toilet

Mr. Skinner testified that after he was seen walking directly beside Mr. Green during the Columbus Day parade, he was unceremoniously ordered to leave his post heading the department's command center at the Medical Examiner's Office after 9/11 to spend several hours daily examining each toilet and shower in the Brooklyn House of Detention.

WILLIAM FRASER: Denied making threat.

That order came from later-disgraced three-star Chief Anthony Serra, who in 2005 pleaded guilty to using city employees to help renovate parts of his Putnam County house and to campaign for Governor Pataki on city time. The jury was barred from hearing about Mr. Serra's transgressions at the trial by Southern District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who ruled they were not relevant to the case.

The jury's award was further substantiation of the deep-rooted politicization of the Correction Department by agency officials supporting two Republican Mayors and ex-Governor Pataki under former Commissioners Bernard B. Kerik and Mr. Fraser, critics of those officials said last week.

'Ignored Bill of Rights'

"During that time period the Bill of Rights of the Constitution was a worthless document that wasn't applied," asserted Sidney Schwartzbaum, the president of the Assistant Deputy Wardens/Deputy Wardens Association.

ANTHONY SERRA: Coordinated harassment.

Notably, Mr. Fraser testified at the trial that he did poll-watching for Mr. Giuliani's campaign for Mayor in 1993 and attended the Republican National Convention in 2004.

After that acknowledgment, Judge Hellerstein interrupted the cross-examination to ask how he could run a poll-watching operation to make sure all of the election inspectors were operating fairly if he was working full-time for the department. "Well, if anyone was off that day, they could do whatever they wanted to do while they were off," Mr. Fraser responded.

Mr. Skinner joined a list of Correction Department supervisors who have successfully sued the department, arguing that they were unfairly disciplined or demoted because of their support of Democratic candidates. Several current and former officials testified or were deposed on behalf of Mr. Skinner, including Warden Clyton Eastmond and Deputy Warden Lionel Lorquet, who is now an Assistant Chief.

Stress Took Physical Toll

At the trial, Mr. Skinner contended that the humiliating assignments caused him incredible stress, which led to a back problem and ultimately compelled him to resign after 20 years of service, rather than working another 10 years and leaving with a better pension.

The department's attorney, however, maintained that Mr. Skinner voluntarily left and was not coerced in any way. The city has appealed the decision.

"This case can be summed up in two words: pension enhancement," said Law Department attorney Jonathan Bardavid during his opening argument.

He noted that Mr. Skinner used his accrued sick-leave and vacation time to take off his entire last year while continuing to earn $122,000 a year. "After that, he retired and he began immediately collecting his full 20-year pension, which was worth approximately $60,000 and full medical benefits," he added.

During his closing argument, Mr. Smith countered that Mr. Skinner never planned on retiring at that point in his career. "This man is 43 years old," he told the jury. "He wants to retire? That makes absolutely no sense for a man who makes $122,000 a year all of a sudden to have no career, no job, and take a half-cut in salary."

Struggling Financially

He called that move "economic suicide," noting that Mr. Skinner has since begun doing some carpentry work for his father-in-law and private investigations.

Mr. Skinner testified that roughly a week after the Columbus Day parade, Capt. Brian Sharkey approached him at the Medical Examiner's Office at the World Trade Center command site. According to Mr. Skinner, Capt. Sharkey told him that he was on "the wrong team" supporting Mr. Green and that he was going to "pay a price" if the Democrat lost the election.

A few days later, Deputy Warden Richard Palmer visited Mr. Skinner at the morgue as well. "Palmer told me that ... if Green lost the campaign it was going to be held against me," Mr. Skinner told the jury. "I told him I was supporting Green, and I didn't care what he thought about it."

Fraser: Never Said It

Shortly after that conversation, Mr. Skinner said he was approached by Commissioner Fraser. "The Commissioner told me that Mark Green would be a bad Mayor for New York City and specifically for the Correction Department and our union and that it would not be good for me as a member of the union," Mr. Skinner testified. "To me that was a message that ... he was number one, aware of who I was supporting, watching it, and wasn't happy about it."

Mr. Fraser denied that conversation ever took place, saying that he visited the morgue to talk with the officers working at the makeshift site cataloging body parts discovered at Ground Zero.

Tree-Lighting Report

After Mayor Bloomberg was elected that November, Mr. Skinner said that the retaliation started the following month. By all accounts, the department held a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony on Rikers Island, ordering specific ranks to attend and encouraging others to show up. But the specified list of invitees did not include the Deputy Warden title.

As a result, Mr. Skinner said he remained at his assignment at the morgue, but shortly afterwards was ordered to submit a written report about why he missed the ceremony. "So I had to write a report like a little kid explaining that I wasn't at the tree-lighting ceremony because I was working at the World Trade Center and I wasn't ordered to go," he told the jury.

Two days later, Mr. Skinner was assigned by Correction Department attorneys to attend a deposition to testify as an expert witness on behalf of the department in a case that was brought by the Legal Aid Society.

But on that same day there was a ceremony for the renaming of the Manhattan Detention Complex to the Bernard B. Kerik Center. (The name was switched back right after Mr. Kerik pleaded guilty in June 2006 to accepting $165,000 worth in home renovations from a mob-connected contractor and failing to report a $28,000 loan from a real estate developer.)

'Pure Harassment'

"So again I had to write a report explaining why I am not attending some ceremony when the department ordered me to testify," Mr. Skinner said at the trial. "It's pure harassment."

Shortly afterwards, Mr. Skinner said he was ordered to inspect that jail's floors, walls, toilets, showers, sinks, and sanitation closets for dirt and vermin. By department directive, that work is normally conducted by a Captain and civilian personnel assigned to the environmental unit, which is three ranks below Mr. Skinner's title of Deputy Warden in Command.

"This was probably the most humiliating job you could possibly give to me; the most humiliating I've seen done to any staff member in the 19 years ... that I had worked in the department," Mr. Skinner said.

Mr. Serra, who at the time was a three-star bureau chief, then assigned him to evaluate three pending court cases against the department and to cut five staff positions in the Criminal Justice Bureau where he was in charge. "This was continued harassment," he testified. "My authority was being undermined. It [was] just a process of continuing to let me know that I supported the wrong person in the election."

According to Mr. Skinner, Mr. Serra then told him that he wasn't doing a good job running the Criminal Justice Bureau. After that meeting, Mr. Skinner decided to use his year of accrued comp and vacation time.

During that year away, Mr. Serra was arrested and Mr. Fraser resigned after reports that he had corrections officers do work on his pool at his home in Belle Harbor, Queens. He was later fined $500 by the city's Conflicts of Interest Board for having three officers repair the leaking pool liner.

Mr. Skinner contemplated returning afterwards, but the new administration under Commissioner Martin F. Horn only discussed the possibility of him being given a position as an Assistant Deputy Warden, a title two levels lower than his previous post, he testified.