A lawyer for Jeffrey Maddrey went on the defense Friday — insisting the disgraced NYPD chief had a “consensual” relationship with the lieutenant he allegedly sexually abused and saying he’s weighing civil litigation against her.
The former chief of department, who abruptly resigned one week ago as the sex-for-overtime scandal engulfed America’s largest police force, stood silently with clenched fists next to his lawyer as he slapped down the scathing accusations.
“We can tell you now those allegations are a lie. They are not true. We deny every aspect of them,” attorney Lambros Lambrou told reporters. “We can tell you now that Lt. [Quathisha] Epps, since October of this year, has been under investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau for overtime she never completed.”
In an exclusive interview with The Post, Epps accused Maddrey — then-the highest ranking uniformed officer — of forcing her to perform sexual favors in exchange for granting her massive amounts of lucrative overtime hours and other perks.
Epps, 51, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Office claiming while she worked her administrative job in Maddrey’s office, he sexually extorted her beginning in June 2023 after he was promoted by Mayor Eric Adams to the highest-ranking cop spot in the force.
Lambrou claimed it was Epps who began the relationship with Maddrey, which he insisted was consensual.
The lawyer claimed to have a slew of evidence, including racy videos and photos that Epps sent Maddrey. Lambrou also claimed Epps “is a self-professed swinger.”
The lawyer said Epps launched her alleged lies against Maddrey to shift the blame away from the fact she put in for a boatload of overtime she never worked.
“Now Lieutenant Epps got caught with her hands in the cookie jar and is trying to deflect her own wrongdoing by making these allegations against Chief Maddrey in the hopes that she will get away with part or all of her schemes,” the attorney said.
“However, the truth is: Lt. Epps had a consensual adult relationship, albeit for a short time with Jeff.”
Lambrou said that Epps’ claims of a sordid sex exchange for OT pay couldn’t be true because Maddrey wasn’t involved in signing off on OT hours.
Maddrey “never approves, gives or signs overtime,” the lawyer said, adding that supervisors, not chiefs, are tasked with approving OT hours.
Maddrey didn’t say a word at the 16-minute presser.
Epps claimed Maddrey preyed on her knowing she was financially struggling and at risk of foreclosing on her house to strong-arm her into agreeing to the sordid arrangement. Epps claimed she had sex with Maddrey, 53, roughly 10 times.
Epps raked in a mind-boggling $400,000 salary, with $204,000 in overtime pay last year, payroll records revealed.
She filed for retirement, after just under 20 years with the NYPD, earlier this month. She was then suspended for 30 days after internal affairs launched an investigation into her unusually high overtime pay.
But her lawyer, Eric Sanders, said last week that she was outed as a top OT earner in retaliation for trying to put an end to their sexual relationship.
Since the alleged scandal surfaced, Maddrey’s wife allegedly kicked him out of their Queens home, and he’s now staying with family in Georgia, sources said.
But Lambrou blasted those claims, too, saying, “We are not in Georgia. We are in New York and Jeff is here.”
This is not the first time Maddrey has been accused of sexual misconduct. Former police officer Tabitha Foster brought a failed lawsuit against Maddrey In 2016 accusing him of engaging in a sex-for-job perks arrangement with her.
Lambrou noted that Sanders also initially represented Foster but claimed the lawyer “ditched” her “halfway through” the case and “ran for the hills” before the suit was ultimately dismissed.
“Perhaps that lawyer had something to do with Lt. Epps’ sudden about-face,” Lambrou said.
And just days before Epps’ allegations came out, Capt. Gabrielle Walls asked a judge to allow her to add Maddrey as a defendant to her sexual harassment lawsuit from July against another NYPD chief.
Lambrou also shot down those claims saying his client never worked with Walls and only ran into her a few times and saw her at a Christmas party with her husband.
“Others are deciding to pour on false allegations,” Lambrou said. But Maddrey “never laid a finger on [Walls] or looked at her the wrong way.”
Lambrou said Maddrey has “reached a boiling point” and he’s “going to take the gloves off and fight for his good name.”
Sanders didn’t immediately return requests for comment Friday afternoon.
Walls’ lawyer blasted claims that she “is piggybacking” on the sexual abuse allegations against Maddrey.
“In reality, Capt. Walls filed her sexual harassment claims against Chief Maddrey in July, and we moved to add him as a named defendant three days before Epps’s allegations became public,” John Scola told The Post Friday evening.
“Chief Maddrey has sexually harassed our client since 2015. His baseless assertions that Capt. Walls is lying, unqualified for promotion, and that he bears no responsibility are emblematic of his long-standing pattern of demeaning and mistreating women within the NYPD.”
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