NYC housing employees suspended for allegedly throwing sex parties at public housing development

Two employees with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) were suspended following allegations that they held alcohol-fueled sex parties at a public housing development and logged them as overtime hours.

Supervisor Brianne Pawson and caretaker Tayron Hazel at the Bronx’s Throggs Neck House have been suspended without pay for 30 days pending an investigation, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.

{mosads}Pawson, who is the daughter of a NYCHA Director Charles Pawson, and Hazel are among a number of staff members who are being investigated in a widespread scandal involving NYCHA employees reportedly hosting multiple orgies inside a groundskeeper shop at the public housing complex.

Staff, at times, logged overtime hours for the parties, The Daily News reported.

Monique Johnson, the president of the development’s resident association, told The New York Times that male and female supervisors at the facility engaged in such activities with their subordinates for months.

“They would drink during working hours and have sexual relations,” Johnson said.

Johnsaid said the NYCHA took action after she reported the allegations to Vito Mustaciuolo, the general manager of the housing authority.

Mustaciuolo reassigned all 40 staffers from Throggs Neck House to other developments this week, according to the Times.

NYCHA spokeswoman Robin Levine acknowledged the reassignments in a statement to the Times, citing “longstanding concerns about management and performance issues.”

“Those concerns, coupled with troubling allegations of misconduct, are why the staff was reassigned,” Levine said. “We can’t comment further on an ongoing investigation.”

Johnson said not all staff members were involved in the activities but that they were still “uprooted and moved” because of the inappropriate behavior. 

The NYCHA was first made aware of the erotic parties in May and told the city Department of Investigation in June that the authority was looking into the allegations.

The scandal is the latest trouble for the NYCHA and comes weeks after the appointment of a federal monitor, the Daily News noted. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) entered into a consent decree in June after the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman filed a complaint detailing how housing authority managers covered up mold and lead paint issues in 176,000 of the authority’s aging units. 

The NYCHA provides housing for 400,000 tenants in the city.