Insisting he’s no racist, whistleblower cop Adrian Schoolcraft is accusing a top NYPD supervisor of “maliciously” claiming he used the N-word to bolster a bitter legal fight.
Schoolcraft asked Manhattan federal Judge Robert Sweet last week to remove a controversial sentence from a March countersuit filed against him by Deputy Inspector Steven Mauriello. The sentence quotes Schoolcraft as saying that officers at the 81st Precinct in Brooklyn, which Mauriello previously commanded, “just worked together, so we wouldn’t have to work with any n—–s.”
In an April 7 legal filing, Schoolcraft’s lawyer, Nathaniel Smith, claimed that the racist comments in the countersuit were “maliciously inserted without any legitimate purpose.”
Mauriello’s lawyer, Walter Kretz, said Sunday that Schoolcraft was “not misquoted and there is nothing alleged maliciously.” He claimed a recording proves Schoolcraft used the slur.
In his $2 million counterclaim, Mauriello alleges Schoolcraft drummed up bogus complaints about wrongdoing at the 81st because he wanted to punish his ex-commander. He filed the countersuit in response to a $50 million lawsuit Schoolcraft filed claiming he was forced to spend time in a mental ward after saying cops at the 81st fudged crime stats.