The director of the Department of Correction unit that investigates staff misconduct has been hit with $5,200 in fines and reimbursements to the city for improperly using a government car to commute to and from home and to run “personal errands,” the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board said Wednesday.
Lawrence McGugins, director of DOC’s Special Investigations Unit, used the city car as his personal car 118 times between January 2023 and February 2024, racking up $1,234.81 in 257 E-ZPass trips, which he was forced to repay, and a $4,000 fine, which he was scheduled to repay on an installment plan, the board said.
The board found McGugins was parking the vehicle in an NYPD lot in the Bronx “to avoid the vehicle’s GPS system from triggering an alert” that would occur if he drove it across city lines, the board found.
The vehicle was a “pool” car, meant for use by the SIU staff for investigative work on Rikers Island, and McGugins wasn’t authorized to use it for his commute.
McGugins would drive from his Westchester County home to an NYPD parking lot in the Bronx, then use the DOC car to drive to work, the board found. At the end of the work day, he would drive the DOC car back to the Police Department lot.
On days when he was not working, he would leave the vehicle in the Police Department lot, where other DOC personnel could not use it, COIB found.
He also used the car for unspecified personal errands in Long Island City, Flushing and Manhattan, the board found.
As part of a settlement, McGugins was obligated to sign a public document acknowledging the misconduct, a copy of that document shows. He claimed he thought the car was for his use for visiting DOC employees being probed for misconduct.
“At all relevant times, I erroneously believed I was assigned a DOC vehicle to perform these tasks,” McGugins acknowledge in the settlement. “I now acknowledge the vehicle was for shared use. I acknowledge I was not authorized to use a DOC vehicle to commute.”
McGugins’ lawyer, Albert Ebanks, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The Correction Department did not reply to a request for comment.
Two Correction commissioners previously were entangled in scandal after using their department vehicles for personal reasons. In 2017, The News reported then-Commissioner Joseph Ponte repeatedly used his DOC car to drive to his home in Maine.
Also in 2017, Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann and eight other DOC officials were fined for using city cars for personal reasons.
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