Former NYPD Sgt. and whistleblower Steven Lee has been transferred from Rikers Island to Westchester County Jail — almost immediately after The Post shed light on him being locked up alongside a cop killer and murderous drug dealer in the notorious Big Apple jail.
Lee, who helped bring to light a karaoke-bar corruption scandal a decade ago in a Queens precinct, was sentenced to six months in Rikers in May over his involvement in a 2021 off-duty brawl at a Chelsea nightclub. He was found guilty of two counts of misdemeanor assault.
“People say cops should break the ‘blue wall of silence’ and speak up against the corruption of the NYPD. Well, this is the reason why cops won’t speak up,” he told The Post on Friday from the Westchester jail, where he is being held in solitary confinement to protect him from other inmates.
“Their careers will be side-roaded, they will be targeted and arrested, maliciously prosecuted and will get no help and return because people are scared of the criminal justice system retaliating against them.”
Lee previously admitted that he struck a man during the fight, but claimed the brawler wasn’t hurt that badly and that he had been trying to protect a woman who was being sexually assaulted.
Another person in Lee’s group severely injured someone during the brawl and was slapped with charges.
Some of the cops who collared Lee the night of the fight were the same ones he previously helped investigate, including a detective he arrested, the inmate said.
After 18 years with the NYPD, Lee was fired following a department trial.
“All I did was the right thing and upheld my oath and showed integrity, yet I [got] targeted and punished for it and there was no public outrage that a whistleblower is being punished this way,” Lee said.
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