He believed the position should have gone to a more experienced FDNY chief. Leeb claims the decision to move his team out of the Fort Totten building was retaliation for opposing a plan to put Augier in charge of an important committee to find replacement breathing equipment for firefighters. As a result, the suit says, internal investigation into Russo’s death was delayed by about three weeks.Īs of April 17, the communications group had not moved in, according to the suit. Leeb followed his orders and quickly moved his team out the building. “They would not extend the deadline for Safety Command to vacate.” “For that reason, I asked them to hold off on relocating,” Leeb stated. “I told Kavanagh, Augier and (Chief of Staff Luis) Martinez that moving Safety Command out of (the building) would delay the investigation,” Leeb said in an affidavit. The court papers say Leeb told Kavanagh and FDNY Deputy Commissioner JonPaul Augier that the building was being “used for important safety command functions” including the investigation of Russo’s stabbing murder, which police say was carried out by an unhinged stranger just steps from her Queens EMS station in September. 30 that the Fort Totten building which housed the Safety Command needed to be vacated “immediately” to house a incoming communications group, according to the suit. Kavanagh and her team told FDNY Chief of Safety Frank Leeb on Jan. The FDNY’s internal investigation of EMT Lt. Alison Russo’s murder on a Queens sidewalk was conducted by the department’s Safety Command, which is responsible for ensuring the safety and security of department workers. The allegations come in an updated lawsuit against the city and Kavanagh come as 10 staff chiefs have either been demoted by Kavanagh or have asked to be lowered in rank as turmoil in the FDNY’s upper ranks continues. A feud between Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh and top FDNY chiefs has turned more bitter with new allegations that one of her decisions delayed a probe into the murder of an EMT and fresh claims that Kavanagh is pursuing a “heinous” and ageist vendetta against long-time department leaders.
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