Five police officials who abruptly retired last year amid a corruption probe are griping that they were pressured into hanging it up, costing them tens of thousands of dollars in accrued vacation time and overtime.
The officers filed a grievance with the city just weeks after they left the department.
The cops — NYPD Inspector Peter DeBlasio and Deputy Chiefs Andrew Capul, Eric Rodriguez, John Sprague and David Colon — had been on tap to get all of their unused vacation and comp time, sources said. But days after they were warned to retire, NYPD Chief of Internal Affairs Joseph Reznick and the department’s commissioner on legal matters, Larry Byrne, told them that if they didn’t waive their accrued time, they would be demoted to captain, thus pull in lower pay, sources said.
The officials were suspected of accepting gifts in violation of department policy, NYPD sources said.
They were told that if they went away quietly, they wouldn’t face disciplinary charges and remain in “good standing,’’ meaning they could keep their guns after retirement to still work security jobs, sources said.
The arm-twisting cost the five cops huge payouts, said Harry Greenberg, a lawyer for the Captains Endowment Association.