NYPD lawyer Samuel Yee has taken on a high-ranking inspector who posted racist comments online, Trump adviser Roger Stone’s police pal and the powerful head of the sergeants union.
But the veteran police misconduct prosecutor is now fighting for his own career in the very department he has long defended.
Yee, who is Chinese-American, claims in a lawsuit filed Sunday in Manhattan Supreme Court that his boss, Deputy Commissioner Amy Litwin of the Department Advocate’s Office, passed him over for promotion multiple times in favor of less experienced white lawyers she either promoted or brought in at higher salaries from outside the NYPD.
When Yee filed complaints about his treatment, they were ignored and he was escorted out of the office, lost his role prosecuting misconduct and was transferred to a department backwater, he claims in the lawsuit.
“Sam Yee, who has an exemplary history of successfully prosecuting the NYPD highest-profile and most complex cases, was repeatedly passed over for executive-level positions in lieu of less qualified white women attorneys,” said Yee’s lawyer John Scola.
“When he complained about the NYPD Legal Bureau’s failure to investigate his complaints of discrimination, he was unlawfully stripped of his prosecutorial role and transferred out of the Department Advocate’s Office the following day.”
The lawsuit is rare public sign of a wave of turmoil that has enveloped the secretive misconduct unit during Litwin’s 20-month tenure. In addition to Yee’s claims, several other agency lawyers have also filed internal discrimination complaints, sources familiar with the complaints said.
The controversy comes at a time when Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell has signaled she wants to revise the disciplinary matrix that establishes misconduct penalties for officers.
An NYPD spokesman declined to comment on Yee’s claims.
“The department does not tolerate discrimination in any form and is committed to respectful work environments for our diverse workforce,” the spokesman said in a statement. “The NYPD thoroughly investigates all complaints it receives, and offers several reporting options for NYPD employees, including anonymously.”
Until his transfer, Yee, 50, had been with the office for eight years after serving 12 years as a prosecutor in Maryland and six years with the New York attorney general’s office. Notably, he prosecuted then-sergeants union head Ed Mullins for making disparaging remarks, Officer Sal Greco for his friendship with Trump adviser Stone, and Inspector James Kobel, the head of the office that investigates discrimination, who posted virulent racial rants online.
All three prosecutions were successful. Yee claims until Litwin arrived, he received high evaluations and consistently got high marks for his productivity.
But after her appointment in May 2020, following a stint with the Bronx district attorney’s office, Litwin began bringing in white lawyers at a higher level and salary than Yee, the lawsuit claims.
For example, Litwin hired another ex-Bronx prosecutor, Kathryn Falasca, in January 2021, bringing her in at a salary level that it took Yee more than six years to reach even though he had 17 years more experience as a prosecutor, the lawsuit alleges.
Similarly, Litwin hired attorney Anna Krutaya in May 2021, who had far less experience than Yee, but immediately gave her the same pay and level, the lawsuit claims.
In October and November 2021, Litwin also promoted a white lawyer, Daniel Maurer, to a newly created executive counsel position, and hired Emily Collins as executive counsel, the lawsuit alleges. The post that went to Collins wasn’t advertised. Collins had no disciplinary trial experience, the lawsuit alleges.
Yee was also passed over for other posts, costing him $20,000 to $30,000 a year in lost salary, he alleges. In the fall of 2021, when Department Advocate’s Office supervisor Penny Bluford-Garrett needed an experienced lawyer to assist her with her caseload, she recommended Yee.
But Litwin rejected the idea, the lawsuit alleges.
Litwin also began moving lawyers of color off cases involving allegations of discrimination, domestic violence and sex offenses, the lawsuit claims. She also created a special team with a lighter caseload to deal with victims of misconduct, but left Yee off it.
Yee filed complaints with the city Department of Investigation, the Human Rights Commission and the NYPD Equal Employment Opportunity office.
When his complaint reached the NYPD’s EEO office, the new boss there, Deputy Commissioner Michael Melocowsky, accused Yee of “mishandling” EEO cases, the lawsuit alleges.
Yee alleges even though nine EEO investigators vouched for his work, Melocowsky, was “close to” Litwin and Falasca, according to the lawsuit.
Yee’s lawsuit also names five other Hispanic or Black lawyers who make less than the white women Litwin hired, but, he claims, have much bigger, more complex caseloads and work longer hours.
The conflict came to a climax last October, when Yee was told by NYPD lawyer David Goldfarb that his complaints had been closed without action. Yee was then ordered to vacate the Department Advocate’s Office office. He had to pack his things and leave under escort, the lawsuit alleges. He is no longer able to try cases.
Sent to the Legal Bureau, he was ordered to help with the Correction Department’s backlog of disciplinary cases. He has since been transferred again to the NYPD’s criminal justice bureau, where employees who fall out of favor are often sent.
“This reassignment is the equivalent of a ‘punishment post’ for an attorney in [the Department Advocate’s Office],” Yee alleges.
