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Ex-NYPD officer claims he quit after denied time off to care for wife under
Family Medical Leave Act

NYPD Police Officer Brenan Woodfield

By Rocco Parascandola | rparascandola@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News

October 9, 2023 at 7:15 a.m.

A police officer ended his NYPD career after just seven years because he said the department
wouldn’t allow him time off to care for his wife after she gave birth.

Brendan Woodfield said he tried without luck to take a 12-week unpaid leave under terms of the
Family Medical Leave Act then was harassed by his supervisors, given a poor evaluation that stalled
,

his promotion, then transferred out of his assignment in the Internal Affairs Bureau.

“Then my wife said, ‘Brendan, I never ever want you to put on that Police Department uniform again,'”
Woodfield said. “So, I resigned.

“Iwanted to be a cop since I was 12 years old. When I took that police test and I finally got that call, it

was a dream of mine come true.

“But I have too much respect for myself to put on a uniform for a department that is going to act like
that.”

Woodfield’s allegations are laid out in a civil rights suit filed Saturday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Woodfield says the NYPD behaved unlawfully under a 2019 amendment to the city’s Human Rights
Law that prohibits retaliation against people who seek to benefits under the law.

“I think the Police Department is following an old playbook, and they don’t even realize what they did
to [Woodfield] is against the law,” said his lawyer, John Scola. “They have yet to catch up to the change
in law.”

Named as defendants in the suit are two of Woodfield’s Internal Affairs Bureau supervisors, Sgt. Mei
Pan and Capt. Mohamed Eltony.

Obtained by New York Daily News

NYPD Capt. Mohamed Eltony (Obtained by New York Daily News)

The first sign of trouble, Woodfield told the Daily News, was when he returned to work late in 2022
after a bout with pancreatitis and was told by Pan he had to work a conventional five-day week,
despite prior assurances that he could work his week’s hours over three shifts.

Working a full schedule over three days also would have helped Woodfield better care for his wife,
Jaime, who by then was in the middle of a high-risk pregnancy during which she could not take the
medications she had been taking to deal with “crippling anxiety.” She was also hospitalized at one point
when her ovarian cysts ruptured, the suit says.

“If I were you, I would just suck it up,” another supervisor, a lieutenant, allegedly said to Woodfield.

But Woodfield said he pressed for the accommodation, which sparked a series of retaliatory moves by
his superiors.

Those included an accusation that Woodfield didn’t properly report a lost property complaint by
another officer and a threat to subject him to “highway therapy” — which in NYPD parlance means a
transfer to a command as far from home as possible.

When Woodfield’s wife gave birth to their son, Bradley, on April 2, Woodfield’s approved request for
two weeks off was cut in half, he says. Then, Eltony allegedly ordered him back to work after two days
to explain why he cut short a caller who wanted to lodge a complaint. Woodfield denied the
accusation.

With his wife suffering from postpartum depression, Woodfield moved to take an unpaid leave.

His request was approved, then denied, with Woodfield told he had not worked the required hours
the prior 12 months. To meet that requirement he worked more hours, Scola said.

In the suit, Woodfield said Eltony clearly didn’t understand why he needed such a long leave.

“Why do you need this time off?” Eltony is quoted saying. “Why so much?”

After Woodfield was given a poor work evaluation, he filed a complaint with the NYPD’s Office of
Equal Employment Opportunity. Four days later he was transferred to the 44th Precinct in the Bronx,
a move that delayed his imminent promotion to detective.

“That was it,” Woodfield said. “They literally took a promotion away from me.”

The NYPD had no comment.

Woodfield and his family now live in North Carolina. He withdrew $50,000 from his retirement
account to help pay the bills and is looking for a job.

Woodfield said Eltony shouldn’t be in charge of investigating other cops, given his history — he was
docked 30 days’ pay in 2010 for violating NYPD rules by living in New Jersey, according to 50-a.org, a
site that tracks police misconduct records.

In2019, Eltony was accused of sexual harassment by a nonuniformed NYPD employee while both
worked at the 62nd Precinct in Bath Beach, Brooklyn. The case was eventually dismissed because
NYPD officials found the facts behind it were “not substantiated.” Eltony’s union said the allegation
was “baseless.”

Woodfield says Eltony’s workplace record is problematic.

”Someone with that background … has no right being in IAB,” Woodfield said. “I had so many
aspirations to climb up the ranks.

“But they really sank my ship.”

2023 October 9

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