Two Brooklyn moms have slapped the city Housing Authority with a $35 million lawsuit for failing to investigate longstanding child sex abuse claims against a recreation center director who was later arrested for allegedly molesting their kids.
The mothers claim that an employee at the Jonathan Williams Center in Williamsburg alerted her NYCHA superiors to lecherous behavior from longtime director Nicholas Rodriguez as far back 1998 — but the worker was ignored, according to the suit, filed in Brooklyn federal court Thursday.
The 64-year-old Rodriguez retired from his position in 2011 after 32 years — but was arrested months later for allegedly abusing the plaintiffs’ two children between 2007 and 2010.
The parents, whose names are being withheld by The Post due to the nature of the claims involving their minor children, sued NYCHA and several administrators for failing to investigate Rodriguez before their own kids were victimized.
In 1998, former employee Hope McGuire told her NYCHA bosses that she walked in on Rodriguez as he placed his hands between the splayed legs of a young girl and that he routinely locked himself in closets with young children, the suit claims.
But one supervisor, NYCHA borough administrator Mary Starks, said she was powerless to investigate abuse claims against the veteran employee unless a child personally came forward, according to the suit.
Instead of encouraging McGuire to remain vigilant, Starks warned her that she could get canned for making false abuse claims against him, the suit claims.
The stunned staffer then went to a second borough administrator, Olga Gomez, but was again rebuffed, the papers state.
“Once again, however, Gomez informed McGuire that, despite McGuire’s eyewitness observation of Rodriguez fondling a minor child’s pubic area, no investigation or sanction of Rodriguez would be initiated by Defendant NYCHA unless a child came forward as a complaining witness,” the suit states.
McGuire persisted and began speaking to students about their experiences with Rodriguez, the suit states. One girl told her that Rodriguez gave her minor sister money to perform oral sex on him, the suit alleges.
Rodriguez guarded against detection with vile threats of reprisal against his victims, the suit states. The kids told McGuire that he told them”when you squeal … you’re a rat, you get stitches, somebody’s hurt you and beat you up.”
McGuire was transferred out of the facility in 2000.
The two moms claim that their minor female daughters – who are still preteens – were both molested by Rodriguez between 2007 and 2010 and have been shattered emotionally by the sick abuse, according to the suit.
He was arrested for the crimes May 2011 after retiring from NYCHA after three decades on the job.
NYCHA officials did not immediately comment on the suit.