President of NYPD Sergeants Resigns After Home, Union HQ Searched By FBI in Criminal Probe – NBC New York

The controversial president of the NYC Sergeants Benevolent Association resigned from office late Monday evening, the union’s board of directors said in a message to members after his home and Manhattan headquarters were opened by the FBI in connection with a federal criminal investigation prosecutors had been searched

“As you no doubt know, this morning agents from the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York carried out a search warrant of the Sergeants Benevolent Association headquarters and the residence of President Ed Mullins,” SBA Board Message to Members had read. “The nature and scope of this criminal investigation remains to be determined. However, it is clear that President Mullins appears to be the target of the federal investigation.

“Given the gravity of this matter and the uncertainty of its outcome, the Board of Directors of the SBA has requested President Mullins’ resignation as President of the SBA. President Mullins tonight agreed to submit his resignation as President of the SBA to continue news.

The FBI confirmed that the bureau carried out the search warrant in the police union offices and Mullins’ home in Port Washington. FBI spokesman Martin Feely said agents were “conducting a law enforcement action in connection with an ongoing investigation.”

Agents were seen carrying boxes from union headquarters in Manhattan and loading them into a van. Mullins returned to his house on Monday afternoon and left after a short time.

However, it was not immediately clear who or what the prosecutors and the FBI were investigating. In the letter to members, the SBA said it would cooperate in the investigation.

“Ed Mullins, like all of us, has the right to be presumed innocent, and we ask you to withhold judgment until all facts are clarified,” the letter reads. “However, the day-to-day business and the important business of the SBA cannot be distracted by the existence of this investigation.”

The SBA represents 13,000 current and former members of the NYPD, according to its website, and controls a $ 264 million pension fund; it describes itself as the fifth largest police union in America. A union lawyer did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

Mullins is a controversial figure who has publicly debated with Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD leadership. De Blasio confirmed the raid on the SBA’s office on Tuesday, telling a press conference that Mullins had been “a divisive voice” before tweeting some stronger words later the evening after his resignation.

The mayor said Mullins “dishonored his uniform, town and union more than I can count. It was only a matter of time before his endless hatred caught up with him.”

Ed Mullins has dishonored his uniform, town, and union more times than I can count. It was only a matter of time before his endless hatred caught up with him. That day has come. https://t.co/J03dKk0a1g

– Major Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) October 6, 2021

Last month, Mullins faced internal NYPD lawsuits on a variety of administrative charges, including an episode in which he tweeted an arrest file for the mayor’s daughter. The trial started last month but was postponed indefinitely after one of his lawyers suffered a medical emergency.

Mullins’ attorney denies that he violated the department’s guidelines, arguing that sticky papers with Chiara de Blasio’s personal identifying information, such as her date of birth and address, have already been posted online.

Mullins is also suing the department, claiming they tried to silence him by barbecuing him and recommending disciplinary action over his online messages, including allegations that officers were at war with city guides.

Mullins, a police officer since 1982, rose to sergeant in 1993, one rank above detective but below captain and lieutenant, and was elected president of the sergeants union in 2002. Under Mullins’ leadership, the union fought for better pay – with contracts that raised wages by 40% – and held a prominent position in the anti-reform movement.

Despite being a full-time union leader, under city law, Mullins has retained his position as a sergeant and received salaries from both the union and the police. Last year, Mullins made more than $ 220,000, according to public records: $ 88,757 from the union and $ 133,195 from the NYPD.

The NYPD referred questions about Mullins to the FBI.

Along with Mullins’ regular appearances on cable networks like Fox News and Newsmax – including one in which he was pictured in front of a QAnon mug – perhaps the union’s strongest megaphone is their 45,000 follower Twitter account, which Mullins often runs himself, fiery Effect.

In 2018, amid a spate of incidents where police officers were doused with water, Mullins suggested that it was time for then-Commissioner James O’Neill and division chief Terence Monahan to “consider another career.” “and tweeted that” O’KNEEL has to “go!”

O’Neill replied that Mullins was “a bit of a keyboard gangster” who rarely showed up for departmental positions.

Last year, Mullins came under fire for hitting former city health commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot, referred to as “b — h” and the US MP Ritchie Torres as “first class w — e”.

Mullins was upset at reports that Barbot had refused to give police face masks in the early days of the pandemic and angry at Torres’ request for an investigation into a possible slowdown in policing in September 2020.

Torres, who is gay, condemned Mullins’ tweet as homophobic.

Referring to that tweet on Tuesday, Torres responded to news of the raid, writing, “Ed Mullins, who famously referred to me as ‘top notch w — e’ for daring to ask questions about the @ Sacking SBANYPD just got a first-rate raid by the FBI. “

In 2019, it wasn’t tweets that got Mullins in trouble, but comments he made in a radio interview that suggested that the killed Barnard college student Tessa Majors had gone to the park where she was killed to Buying marijuana. Police later arrested three teenagers and said she was stabbed to death in an attempted robbery.

The Majors family called Mullins’ remarks on the radio show “deeply inappropriate” and urged him not to “engage in such irresponsible public speculation”.