In a meeting at his office on Nov. 14, 2012, Gordon said, Scott boasted that he could get teachers fired — or off the hook. “I have the power to get rid of you just like that,” she said he told her, snapping his fingers, “or I can make everything go away.” The scandal undermines the integrity of the DOE’s Office of Special Investigations, where Scott worked for three years... NY PostUPDATE FROM PORTELOS:
Lawrence Scott...the lead investigator investigating my principal. I have him recused threatening me. He dragged investigation of Linda Hill out over 700 days and resigned.
Back in 2007 Jeff Kaufman and James Eterno, just as their terms on the UFT Exec Bd were coming to an end, tried to get the UFT to hire paralegals to do their own investigations instead of leaving to the "gotcha" squad at the DOE. Unity Caucus naturally voted it down -- let's let teachers charged hang in the wind.
I believe the investigator in this scandal reported by Sue Edelman at the NY Post was also on the Portelos case, though I do not think he asked for sex in exchange for "getting Portelos off." Betsy Combier who is quoted (see her report on scuzzball Queens Principal Anthony Lombardi is Accused of Sexual Harassment at PS 49), told us this story was coming a few weeks ago. Did you know that the DOE had another corrupt investigator, the now famous Louis Scarcella (See yesterday's NY Times': Louis Scarcella's Ex-Partner Is Coming Under Scrutiny in Brooklyn Cases), working for them?
The den of thieves at DOE Legal have a good partner.
Teacher: Prober said sex would get me off hook
IT'S QUID PRO WHOA! Teacher Natalya Sokolson Gordon alleges that a DOE investigator demanded sex in exchange for dropping complaints against her. Left: One of the racy come-ons sent by the investigator.A Department of Education detective tried to have sex with a Brooklyn teacher he was probing in exchange for letting her keep her job, she charges.
Investigator Lawrence Scott, 40, allegedly sent scores of X-rated texts, a photo of his penis and explicit demands for sex to Natalya Sokolson Gordon, a computer and fifth-grade teacher at PS 329 in Coney Island.
“I like it dirty,” Scott texted the tall brunette soon after inviting her to call him when she got “the courage.”
Over 2¹/₂ months, he sent Gordon a barrage of pornographic messages and requests.
Gordon, 44, admits she sexted back — even sending him topless and bottomless photos of herself, which he requested. She claims it was a desperate bid to save her career from what she called false accusations.
“I feel so stupid for believing he would help me,” she told The Post, tears streaming down her face. “I was scared I was going to lose my job. I felt I had no choice. He had my life in his hands.”
In a meeting at his office on Nov. 14, 2012, Gordon said, Scott boasted that he could get teachers fired — or off the hook.
“I have the power to get rid of you just like that,” she said he told her, snapping his fingers, “or I can make everything go away.”
The scandal undermines the integrity of the DOE’s Office of Special Investigations, where Scott worked for three years. He resigned his $65,000-a-year post in October when confronted with the texts.
“It was the dumbest mistake I ever made,” Scott told The Post, but he denied he exploited his power to seduce Gordon. “She initiated it. I never forced anything on her. There was no quid pro quo.”
Gordon also has filed complaints that Scott groped her breasts and put his hand between her legs during a discussion of her case in a closed-door meeting at her school.
Scott denied assaulting Gordon. She secretly taped the meeting, which includes slapping sounds — she says she fought him off.
On Jan. 31, Gordon was charged with yelling at and grabbing several students the previous year, and of making an obscene gesture in reference to Principal Salema Marbury.
Gordon was yanked from her school and sent to a rubber room, then assigned clerical duties in the same Brooklyn building where Scott worked. Fearful, she said, she asked for a transfer.
Scott started sexting Gordon with banter about sex positions; “Some may force u to scream,” he wrote. The texts are rife with crude slang.
The married Scott, who lives near Gordon in Staten Island, texted: “We can just enjoy each other’s company . . . A lot if we’re naked lmao.”
Gordon turned over 275 pages of texts last October to the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools Richard Condon. But after Scott quit, Condon’s office told Gordon that she, too, was under scrutiny “because I didn’t report him and I texted him back,” she said.
“They’re making the victim a culprit,” said Betsy Combier, a paralegal helping defend Gordon against her disciplinary charges.
Gordon’s lawyer, Peter Gleason, could find no written report by Scott.
“His interest was in gratifying his own deviant desires,” Gleason said.
DOE spokesman David Pena said Scott is still under investigation.Modal Trigger
IT'S QUID PRO WHOA! Teacher Natalya Sokolson Gordon (right) alleges that a DOE investigator demanded sex in exchange for dropping complaints against her. Left: One of the racy come-ons sent by the investigator. Photo: Helayne Seidman (right)
I wrote about the DOE corrupt investigations previously and my latest one can be found at http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/12/ny-post-points-to-corruption-in-osi-doe.html.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused. Doesn't she have a union?
ReplyDeleteI'm confused. Doesn't she have a union?
ReplyDelete