The former commissioner of New York City\u2019s Department of Probation faces a criminal investigation into her rocky tenure at the agency.<\/p>\n
Two law enforcement sources confirmed to Gothamist that the Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office is investigating former Commissioner Juanita Holmes after a referral last year by the city\u2019s watchdog Department of Investigation. Three current and former probation employees said they were questioned in connection with the investigation. All the sources asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak about the ongoing probe.<\/p>\n
The full scope of the inquiry is unclear. But the former commissioner\u2019s nearly three-year reign at the probation department was fraught with allegations of nepotism and patronage, circumvention of civil service rules, retaliation against employees, bypassing of procurement rules and manipulation of key agency metrics. She was one in a string of Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 appointees in law enforcement who faced accusations of abusing their power.<\/p>\n
Spokespeople for the DA\u2019s office and DOI declined comment.<\/p>\n
In the past two months, Holmes has been sued by two former senior aides who accused her of abusing her power. A spokesperson for the Department of Probation declined to comment on \u201cpersonnel matters.\u201d Holmes and her attorney Jack Angelou declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Holmes previously defended her tenure at the Department of Probation, saying she brought much needed reform to how the agency collects data.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way I know how to fight recidivism or fight crime is by having transparency,\u201d she said in an interview last year with City & State<\/a>.<\/p>\n The investigation and lawsuits represent a low point for Holmes, who took over the Department of Probation after a decorated career in the NYPD that ended abruptly. Holmes served in the department for 35 years and rose to become the chief of patrol. She was the highest-ranking Black woman in the department.<\/p>\n But in early 2023 she faced criticism for allowing Cardi B to address recruits<\/a> at the police academy as part of the rapper\u2019s court-ordered community service tied to a brawl in a Queens strip club. Holmes, who oversaw training, also faced blowback for eliminating a timed 1.5-mile run<\/a> fitness test for recruits. Holmes said the controversies were blown out of proportion.<\/p>\n In March 2023, then-Mayor Eric Adams appointed Holmes to run the Department of Probation, which manages about 33,000 cases involving juveniles and adults.<\/p>\n Adams said in a press release at the time that Holmes had a \u201cdeep understanding of the delicate line between rehabilitation and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n Holmes went on to slash budgets of nonprofit programs<\/a> and tilt the agency\u2019s mission from rehabilitation toward enforcement, including requiring probation officers to carry firearms even on home visits. Holmes imposed new rules on probation officers wearing uniforms and changed their shields to more closely resemble NYPD badges.<\/p>\n Among her first acts was the purchase of a $90,000 luxury SUV with police lights and sirens \u2013 a taxpayer-funded expenditure that bypassed city rules, the city comptroller later found<\/a>. Holmes also was accused of hiring friends and relatives<\/a>, including naming her niece, Demmi Slaughter, to a senior post in the information technology bureau. In an interview with City & State, Holmes said her niece was \u201cphenomenal in IT.\u201d Slaughter left her post last month.<\/p>\n Last July, the City Council\u2019s Committee on Criminal Justice held a hearing that amounted to an airing of grievances from staff about Holmes\u2019 management of the agency. Committee Chair Sandy Nurse noted that under Holmes the department was issuing more violations of probation<\/a> and making more \u201cre-arrests,\u201d sending people who had been released from jail back behind bars. Meanwhile, probation officers were carrying larger caseloads.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only are we getting outreach [from insiders] about the shift in overall approach to probation and the lack of institutional knowledge and executive leadership, but we have also had a consistent stream of communication that workers are being retaliated against and abruptly suspended without pay, without any due process,\u201d Nurse said in the hearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n