Metro

‘Assault’ aide quietly axed

ALBANY — Gov. Paterson quietly fired his top aide David Johnson almost nine months after Johnson was suspended for allegedly beating his former girlfriend in The Bronx.

Johnson, once Paterson’s closest aide and the governor’s $132,000-a-year “director of executive services,” was axed Nov. 19, the same day reports appeared that a Bronx judge ruled that prosecutors could move ahead with a domestic-violence case against him.