Low-Income NYers Abused As They Seek City Benefits: Investigation

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — Beaten with batons. Handcuffed in back rooms for hours. Sexually assaulted.

A New York Times investigation has uncovered a pattern of abuse against low-income New Yorkers at Human Resources Administration offices where people apply for and seek benefits and other social services.

In 2017, Laura Zilioli was handcuffed in a back room and sexually assaulted by a supervising HRA officer, John Lugo, at the agency's job center on 14th Street.

Lugo told other officers to leave before sexually assaulting her. She sued for $5 million, and Lugo ultimately pleaded guilty to criminal charges last year and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Another complaint at the Greenwich Village office was from Ronald Purnell — who was beaten with batons while his oxygen tank was beyond his reach, according to the Times's opinion piece, which called for reforming the agency with more officer training and pay raises to draw better candidates.

Purnell, 58, had gone to the office to help a friend who didn't speak English fluently, but wasn't allowed back inside the building after stepping outside, he told the Times. He hadn't been accused of a crime, but was beaten with batons and kicked by the agency's officers as he tried to re-enter.

These two cases are among hundreds of complaints across the agency's offices.

More than 50 lawsuits for serious abuse allegations and nearly 700 complaints regarding security staff's behavior, including excessive force, have been filed since 2013, the Times investigation found.

Since the agency's current commissioner Steven Banks took over in 2014, three officers have been fired, 13 have resigned and six have been put on desk duty after Banks hired additional investigators.

Banks said without body cameras on the agency officers, which are not a part of the New York Police Department, substantiating allegations is difficult, the Times wrote.

By the year's end, Banks told the newspaper, officers will have body cameras, changes sparked by a video from 2018 showing police taking Jazmine Headley's toddler from her arms at an HRA office in Brooklyn. The commissioner also has added another 73 hours of new training for officers.

"I worry about the extent of the problem based on the egregious cases I've seen," Banks said, according to the Times.

Click here to read the New York Times' report.