Senior New York City Department of Corrections officer abruptly fired on sexual harassment charges just three months after he was hired

Official No. 2 at the city’s Department of Corrections was unceremoniously fired on Friday while under investigation after a sexual harassment complaint was filed against him, sources said.

Joseph Dempsey, a veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was fired by Correction Commissioner Louis Molina just three months into his tenure. On October 31, Molina called Dempsey “a visionary thinker”.

Sources said a woman working for the Department of Corrections filed a sexual harassment complaint against him, prompting Molina to act.

The woman’s lawyer, Sarena Townsend, declined to discuss the allegations but issued a statement.

“It’s appalling that my client faced this type of sexual harassment by a senior deputy commissioner, Molina, personally chosen by himself,” said Townsend, a former chief of the Department of Corrections’ Trial and Investigations who was fired by Molina a year ago.

“My client, who never asked for this position, was not only distressed by the persecution of such a prominent figure in the DOC,” Townsend said. “But now, due to the rumor culture of the DOC, he will be subjected to public humiliation and retribution.”

Neither the Department of Corrections nor Dempsey responded to a request for comment.

It was a sudden and shocking end to Dempsey’s rule. His hiring was advertised as part of a strategy to hire external corrections experts to top positions within the agency and remove uniformed agency leadership.

“Joe Dempsey’s knowledge and experience in correctional reform, the use of force, and the population of city prisons will be valuable to this department,” Molina said Oct. 31. “I am delighted that he will be joining this agency as we strive to make forward-thinking, data-driven policy and practical improvements to our city’s prisons.”

Molina showed the outside hiring as evidence of a change of agency, and his plans were approved by Steve Martin, a monitor assigned to monitor Rikers violence as part of a federal lawsuit.

But union officials said Dempsey’s firing raises questions about the plan to hire outside.

“He struck me as a very serious man, a very capable man, and I know he has a very respectable resume,” said Joseph Russo, president of the union representing deputies and assistant deputies.

“But until they fix the issue of prisoner control and violence, they can bring in all the Joseph Dempseys they want and the prisons still won’t be fixed.”