A New York Police Department inspector was stripped of his badge and shield on Tuesday after a lawsuit filed by a female officer charging that he had harassed her for months and then groped her when they were alone in his office, the department said.
The Bronx district attorney’s office has been investigating the inspector, Jeremy Scheublin, since January 2025, when the police referred the officer’s complaints to prosecutors. He has not been charged with any crime.
The officer, whose name has not been released, filed a lawsuit against Inspector Scheublin earlier this month in State Supreme Court in the Bronx. In the suit, she said she had feared the inspector would rape her during an encounter in his office on Jan. 1, 2025, when they were both on duty and working out of the 46th Precinct, which covers parts of the western Bronx.
Inspector Scheublin, who has been with the department for 24 years, was the commanding officer at the precinct at the time.
The officer said that when they were in his office, he grabbed her buttocks, threw her onto a couch and tried to kiss her, putting his hand around her neck and trying to take off her gun belt. He was armed at the time, the complaint said.
She “physically fought off defendant Scheublin by kicking him in the groin and escaping his office,” according to the complaint. She immediately reported what happened to the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, according to her lawsuit, which was first reported by The New York Post.
Even after the department referred her accusations to prosecutors, Inspector Scheublin remained the commanding officer of the precinct, where the woman was working desk duty, until he was transferred on Jan. 12 of this year. He is now assigned to the precinct covering northern Manhattan.
The officer’s lawyer, John Scola, said she was “terrified” because Inspector Scheublin still had possession of his police firearm. On March 20, Mr. Scola filed an emergency motion demanding that the inspector be disarmed.
“We were worried that Scheublin could retaliate and harm our client,” Mr. Scola said.
The department offered to transfer her out of the Bronx precinct, but she declined.
“A victim of a sexual assault should not be punished by being forced to uproot her career,” Mr. Scola wrote in the emergency motion.
Louis C. La Pietra, a defense lawyer who represents Inspector Scheublin’s union, the Captains Endowment Association, said the inspector “vehemently denies these allegations.”
“They’re outrageous,” Mr. La Pietra said. He said he had expected the city’s Law Department to represent Inspector Scheublin because he had not “done anything wrong.”
“Once the investigation is concluded, we will know if the allegations have merit or if this case is just an attempt at a money grab by the plaintiff,” Mr. La Pietra said.
Capt. Chris Monahan, the president of the captains’ union, said it was a “sad day” when lawsuits dictate department policies about transfers and discipline.
“We look forward to a fair and thorough investigation,” Captain Monahan said.
The department did not comment on the officer’s complaint but confirmed that Inspector Scheublin had been transferred and placed on modified duty.
His gun and shield were taken on Tuesday night, according to an internal police document.
The officer, a 34-year-old single mother of two children, joined the department in January 2020 after working for the Department of Correction.
She was assigned to the 46th Precinct that July. Nearly three years later, Inspector Scheublin was assigned to the precinct as the commanding officer. He quickly took a personal interest in the officer, according to the lawsuit, asking her about her love life, calling her at night when she was off-duty and commenting on her appearance.
Once, when she was leaving a meeting, he pulled her aside and said, “I do not know whether I should smack or kiss you,” according to the complaint. She became so uncomfortable around him that she blocked his number and avoided the precinct’s holiday party, the complaint said.
After she said he had attacked her in his office, Inspector Scheublin told her he wanted to “make biracial babies” with her, the suit said. The officer is Black and Inspector Scheublin is white.
After she complained, according to the lawsuit, he began to retaliate, forcing her to work overtime shifts that began at 3 a.m. and to switch partners.
Inspector Scheublin joined the department in 2002 and won numerous departmental awards for meritorious police duties as he rose through the ranks.
Last December, shortly before he was transferred, Bronx residents honored him during a precinct council meeting for “his commitment and service to the borough,” Vanessa Gibson, the borough president, said in a post on social media.
Maria Cramer is a Times reporter covering the New York Police Department and crime in the city and surrounding areas.
The post N.Y.P.D. Inspector Accused of Groping an Officer Is Stripped of His Gun appeared first on New York Times.
