{"id":196593,"date":"2026-04-14T09:44:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T09:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196593\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T09:44:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T09:44:33","slug":"nyc-whistleblower-reported-bosss-alleged-affair-she-was-fired-the-next-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196593\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC whistleblower reported boss\u2019s alleged affair: She was fired the next day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"3ISXHBDYCBB6ZKTABGN7DF5P3I\">STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A chief investigator at New York City\u2019s Probation Department was allegedly fired from her job after she blew the whistle on her boss\u2019s affair with an employee. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"RWS3SHONYZA6PN7SJG5RDE5BBU\">Ebony Huntley filed a \u201cfiled a wrongful termination lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday laying out the accusations against Department of Probation Commissioner Sharun Goodwin, who was appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani in late January,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/04\/10\/nyc-government-employee-fired-after-blowing-whistle-on-mamdani-administration-officials-romantic-relationship-lawsuit-alleges-00866619\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">according to Politico.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"P25ROAH6LZHJBIPAIAGQ5XS664\">Huntley alleges that she received an anonymous complaint from a worker in the department that Goodwin was in a \u201cprior intimate relationship\u201d with Wayne McKenzie, a member of the department\u2019s general counsel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"ZSQ2AYMB6BCMJLYI24VMVFALUM\">McKenzie joined the general counsel after Goodwin was appointed to the Department of Probation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"KA7V66ESVJGYJGIFTCVWM73BHA\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/04\/10\/nyc-government-employee-fired-after-blowing-whistle-on-mamdani-administration-officials-romantic-relationship-lawsuit-alleges-00866619\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">In an interview with Politico<\/a>, Huntley said the worker was concerned that Goodwin and McKenzie\u2019s alleged affair \u201cmay present a conflict of interest and impact impartial decision-making.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"E7VHYXLHGNAIRLPOJRVQFQS374\">The complaint made by the staffer also expressed concerns about Human Resources Director Zenia Melendez. Melendez is \u201caccused of having a history of \u2018verbal and physical violence\u2019 against staff,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/04\/10\/nyc-government-employee-fired-after-blowing-whistle-on-mamdani-administration-officials-romantic-relationship-lawsuit-alleges-00866619\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politico reported.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"CAZK5OMQ4VES7AQOVYKAAIZOZM\">Huntley passed along the complaint to the Department of Investigation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"2442OI5KQBDH5IB6VK6KLXKXG4\">Discussing the report with Probation Department attorney Brandon Smith, Smith allegedly told her that he would alert McKenzie of the report mentioning his name. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"2CNB5ZVCSJFFBGGC7THB5CTEVY\">\u201cHuntley says she told Smith he shouldn\u2019t do that, given McKenzie was named in the complaint, but Smith allegedly replied: \u2018This is not like the old days where you don\u2019t share information,\u2019\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/04\/10\/nyc-government-employee-fired-after-blowing-whistle-on-mamdani-administration-officials-romantic-relationship-lawsuit-alleges-00866619\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politico wrote.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"6IWV4HTK4ZFZRC2SA6GYHVR5LY\">A day after her submission to the Investigation Department, Huntley said she was invited to a meeting led by McKenzie. He discussed the report with her, according to Politico, before allegedly saying, \u201cI cannot have a person like Ebony working for me. Effective immediately, you are terminated\u2026 you can\u2019t work for me. I am disappointed in you, Ebony. I thought you had more integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"DQMZS2QZLRFXLFUFSJX7A4LTNA\">Her termination was signed by Melendez. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"W6ETDQ3I65FAHGXLKFG3HA4R4U\">Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s comment on the matter was the following: \u201cI\u2019m not going to be weighing in on any ongoing investigation. However, New Yorkers should rest assured that there is an investigation.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"5FF6IBDGL5FXJOHIBHJ2EOHRCQ\">He assured reporters that \u201cany allegation of misconduct incredibly seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A chief investigator at New York City\u2019s Probation Department was allegedly fired from her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[78331,78332,2692,52811,4234,2709,78333,78334,9,78335,11,10,78336],"class_list":{"0":"post-196593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-60-centre-street","9":"tag-civic-center","10":"tag-columns","11":"tag-courthouse","12":"tag-judges","13":"tag-justice","14":"tag-law-order-tv-show-location","15":"tag-microphones","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-county-courthouse","18":"tag-new-york-headlines","19":"tag-new-york-news","20":"tag-steps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}