One of Mayor Eric Adams’ closest aides and confidants resigned on Monday, less than a week after the mayor was indicted on corruption charges and nearly a month after federal agents seized the aide’s phones in a separate corruption inquiry, according to a resignation letter his lawyer said had been sent to the mayor.
The aide, Timothy Pearson, had a broad portfolio that included dealing with contracts for migrant shelters and focusing on public safety. He is the fifth senior member of the mayor’s administration to announce his departure in the past three weeks.
In the letter, Mr. Pearson thanked the mayor and lauded the administration’s accomplishments, saying: “As I look ahead to the next chapter of my life, I’ve decided to focus on family, self-care and new endeavors.”
A retired Police Department inspector, Mr. Pearson is also a defendant in four sexual harassment lawsuits filed by subordinates, and he is the subject of two separate inquiries by the New York City Department of Investigation. He was among the several senior administration officials whose phones were seized by federal investigators on Sept. 4.
Some members of the Adams administration had for weeks been pressing for the resignations of Mr. Pearson and others whose phones had been seized.
Mr. Adams hired Mr. Pearson in 2022 as a senior adviser with a $243,000 salary, even though Mr. Pearson was at the time also working a job at a Queens casino as its vice president for public safety. In that position, he was earning between $250,000 and $500,000 a year, city records show.
State law precludes officials employed by conventional city agencies from simultaneously collecting city pensions. But Mr. Adams put Mr. Pearson on the payroll of a city-run nonprofit, the Economic Development Corporation, which allowed him to also keep the $124,000 Police Department pension he was collecting.
At the time of his hiring, Mr. Pearson’s other employer, Resorts World New York City, was seeking support from New York City for a bid to expand its casino operations in Queens, an apparent conflict of interest that City Hall sought to dispel by saying that Mr. Pearson’s responsibilities did not touch on casinos.
Four days after The New York Times reported on Mr. Pearson’s unusual employment situation, he left the job with the casino.
Mr. Pearson’s lawyer, Hugh H. Mo, said his client had done nothing wrong.
“I think there are a lot of rumors and salacious allegations about Tim Pearson, but at the end of the day, there will be no evidence to support those allegations,” Mr. Mo said.
The letter from Mr. Pearson cited his 30 years in the Police Department and 11 years in the private sector at Resorts World.
“During my tenure, I played a critical role in ensuring quality assurance for migrant services and security issues, with particular oversight of shelter sites and migrant contracts, with a focus on keeping costs down for the City,” the letter said. “I also contributed to advising you on new technology and matters related to the N.Y.P.D.”
Those aspects of his work are under scrutiny as part of the federal investigation that resulted in the seizure of this phones, according to people with knowledge of the matter. He has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing.
Mr. Adams declined to comment on Mr. Pearson’s resignation during an appearance at Aliento de Vida Church in Queens on Monday night.
After Mr. Pearson joined the administration, the mayor never clearly defined what Mr. Pearson’s responsibilities were, but subsequent reporting revealed that they included dealing with contracts tied to the housing of migrants at city shelters and interacting with the Police Department.
Mr. Pearson wielded near-absolute control over most discretionary promotions at the Police Department even though he held no formal role there, according to a lawsuit filed by a veteran deputy police chief, Miltiadis Marmara, in July.
Mr. Marmara was one of the four subordinates of Mr. Pearson’s who filed sexual harassment suits against him this year. Three of those suits, including Mr. Marmara’s, were filed by men who said they were appalled by Mr. Pearson’s treatment of female colleagues in a small unit overseen by Mr. Pearson.
Mr. Pearson has also been the subject of the two inquiries by the city’s independent Department of Investigation. One has focused on the sexual harassment allegations. The other has examined Mr. Pearson’s apparent instigation of a brawl at a Manhattan migrant center last fall, after the security guards there asked for Mr. Pearson’s identification, in keeping with protocol.
Mr. Pearson and Mr. Adams, a retired police captain, have been friends for more than 30 years. Mr. Pearson at one point served as Mr. Adams’s supervisor when he was on the force. And when Mr. Adams was sworn in as mayor in Times Square on Jan. 1, 2022, Mr. Pearson was one of only a handful of friends and family members who stood with him on the stage.
The mayor has consistently defended Mr. Pearson, arguing that he is an essential element of his administration and deserves due process.
“Tim,” the mayor said in December, “is one of my Knights of the Round Table.”
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