A union representing NYPD officers filed this state court action on March 3, 2018 to challenge the Sexual Misconduct Resolution, which expanded the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board’s (CCRB) powers to include investigation of complaints of sexual misconduct against NYPD officers, which had previously been automatically referred by the CCRB to the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau. The plaintiffs also challenged several other proposed CCRB rules revisions under state law that allows for the review of agency decisions. The plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief.

Judge Melissa Crane of the New York trial court issued an opinion on February 27, 2019, in favor of the CCRB. 2019 WL 1475017. The trial court found that the CCRB was authorized to investigate civilian allegations of sexual misconduct by NYPD officers since it had the authority to include sexual misconduct within its interpretation of “abuse of authority,” which the CCRB has jurisdiction to investigate. The court did invalidate four other rules changes that were proposed alongside the Sexual Misconduct resolution. The court found that it was outside the CCRB’s jurisdiction to “initiate contact with potential victims” and limited the CCRB’s investigatory power to responding to complaints that have been submitted. The court also invalidated as arbitrary and capricious a broad rule that would have allowed complaints from people who viewed unauthenticated videos on the internet, but are not actually victims themselves. Another rule change regarding the use of past unsubstantiated complaints was struck down for lacking appropriate detail on how, if at all, the complaints could be used in future investigations. Finally, the court struck down a rule that would have expanded the Administrative Prosecution Unit’s powers to the same level as the NYPD’s Department of Advocate’s Office. 

Both parties appealed on April 3, 2019. The CCRB submitted amended rules revisions and requested a motion to reargue, which the trial court denied on June 3, 2019.

Writing for the New York appellate court on May 28, 2020, Judge David Friedman declared that the Sexual Misconduct Resolution amounted to a new rule and that the CCRB did not abide by the rule-making requirement to hold a public hearing before adoption. Litigation in the trial court ended on December 9, 2020.

Outside of the court system, the NYPD and CCRB in February 2021 signed a memorandum of understanding and pledged to follow a newly written disciplinary matrix, which included sexual misconduct under the CCRB’s “abuse of authority” jurisdiction.