{"id":316356,"date":"2026-08-07T21:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/316356\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:54:22","slug":"two-former-department-of-probation-workers-challenge-exits-as-scrutiny-of-commissioner-goodwin-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/316356\/","title":{"rendered":"Two former Department of Probation workers challenge exits as scrutiny of Commissioner Goodwin grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two former IT employees with the agency responsible for supervising parolees in the city allege that they were fired or effectively forced out after Commissioner Sharun Goodwin took office<\/a>, before the agency advertised jobs tied to their work, while a separate whistleblower-retaliation suit<\/a> against department leaders remains pending.<\/p>\n

Jenette Cummings and Demmi Slaughter filed separate Article 78 petitions in New York County (Manhattan) Supreme Court late last month, each seeking reinstatement, back pay and other relief. Their cases involve different employment circumstances but overlap inside DOP\u2019s information technology unit, where both say employees abruptly lost access to systems needed to perform their jobs.<\/p>\n

A DOP spokesperson said the department is \u201ccommitted to serving New Yorkers with fairness, integrity, and professionalism.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City will review the cases when served,\u201d the spokesperson said.\n<\/p>\n

John Scola, Slaughter\u2019s attorney, told amNewYork that agency turnover is common under new administrations<\/a> and commissioners, but that the lawfulness of any personnel action must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. He said employees from numerous city agencies had contacted him about personnel changes after the Mamdani administration took office.<\/p>\n

Cummings, who is representing herself, began working at DOP on Jan. 12 as an IT project specialist with the business title IT asset management associate. She was dismissed on March 27, roughly two months into a six-month probationary period.<\/p>\n

Cummings clarified that she was not assigned any tasks after the new commissioner took office. Her offer letter identified Slaughter as her supervisor, but Cummings said that after Slaughter was no longer in the office, no one could tell to whom she reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one had an answer for me as far as what tasks I had to do for my day-to-day,\u201d Cummings told amNewYork. \u201cNo one gave any direction.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Cummings said she and other workers lost email, ticketing-system and data-center access, preventing them from resolving support requests or troubleshooting technical problems.<\/p>\n

Cummings said Assistant Commissioner of Human Resources Zenia Melendez called her March 27 and directed her to a meeting where she was told only that DOP was \u201cgoing in a different direction.\u201d After she sought an explanation for unemployment purposes, Human Resources Director Keven Lee emailed her April 14 that she \u201cdidn\u2019t pass probation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me that I didn\u2019t pass probation, but they didn\u2019t tell me the reason why I didn\u2019t pass probation,\u201d Cummings said. \u201cI was never given an evaluation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

She said she received no written or verbal warning before her dismissal.\n<\/p>\n

On April 22, 26 days after Cummings was dismissed, DOP advertised two openings carrying the same IT Project Specialist civil-service title and IT Asset Management Associate business title she had held. Cummings said she reapplied but received no response.<\/p>\n

Dismissed Probation workers question agency\u2019s motives<\/p>\n

Slaughter\u2019s petition describes a separate but related dispute. Slaughter, a nearly nine-year city employee, held the permanent civil-service title Certified IT Administrator and was serving as acting second-in-command of DOP\u2019s IT unit.<\/p>\n

Her petition alleges DOP revoked access needed by roughly 12 IT employees on Jan. 27 without notice or explanation and, based on information from a colleague, attributes the decision to Chief Information Officer Razwan Mirza.<\/p>\n

In an email to her union, Slaughter said the disruption temporarily halted DOP\u2019s IT operations and that the employee who disabled her access claimed he had been instructed by the \u201cnew DOP commissioner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slaughter resigned Feb. 17, effective April 17, alleging the restrictions and lack of explanation had made her position untenable. She withdrew the resignation on April 13 while still on the payroll, but DOP processed her separation four days later, according to the petition.<\/p>\n

Lee told her the withdrawal could not be accepted because her position had been filled. Slaughter alleges DOP also proposed placing her on unpaid leave until the NYPD took her back, although she says she was not on loan from the Police Department.<\/p>\n

DOP later told her it had no vacancies consistent with her permanent title. Her petition points to the April 22 IT openings, although they carried a different civil-service title, and to a later posting for an IT Service Management Specialist position that she identifies as her former job.<\/p>\n

Scola said Slaughter told him DOP would not identify who had filled her former position and rejected her request to be considered for another vacancy.\n<\/p>\n

Scola also represents Ebony Huntley, DOP\u2019s former chief investigator, whose April lawsuit alleges she was fired after forwarding an anonymous employee complaint about department leadership to the Department of Investigation.<\/p>\n

The complaint raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest and favoritism, including an alleged prior relationship between Goodwin and DOP General Counsel Wayne McKenzie. It also alleged that Goodwin had expressed an intention to remove or marginalize employees associated with the previous administration. The allegations have not been proven in court.<\/p>\n

Huntley has since met with DOI, Scola said. He said the city has been served in her case but had not yet filed a response.\n<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> said in April that he took the allegations \u201cincredibly seriously\u201d but would not weigh in on an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers should rest assured that there is an investigation,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

The Department of Investigation declined to comment on whether that investigation remains ongoing or, if it has concluded, whether it would release any findings. City Hall declined to comment on a separate request for comment on the investigation\u2019s status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two former IT employees with the agency responsible for supervising parolees in the city allege that they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,113311,9,24,63,613,77847,129,131,130,82],"class_list":["post-316356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-department-of-probation","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-pm-newsletter","tag-sharun-goodwin","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316356","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=316356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}