A complaint over racial discrimination within the Rikers Island fire safety unit has landed a white correction officer in a jail cafeteria sweeping floors in retaliation for crossing a Black civilian dispatcher, according to a complaint filed with the state Division of Human Rights.

Officer David Warwick, who works as a volunteer firefighter in Long Island and has fought jail fires for the last 10 years in Rikers’ fire unit, said that he has received commendations for his hard work and dedication in his two decades on the job.

However, beginning in December 2021, friction between Warwick and radio dispatcher Gregory York, erupted into threats of violence, vulgar taunts and accusations of racism. York referred to Warwick as “white boy” at least once, according to the human rights complaint.

“My boss had told him more than once that he wasn’t in a position to tell us officers, that are also firefighters, how to do our job. We were all kind of offended, so that started it,” Warwick told the Daily News.

During one dispute over how a fire call went, the complaint alleges, York told Warwick to “get the d--k out of your mouth.” In March 2022, York allegedly referred to Warwick as one of “the two white boys” who were working in the unit’s office.

The major blow-up between the men came a month later, when Warwick backed a fire engine into its bay without attaching an exhaust hose to the truck, something he says he didn’t need to do because he immediately cut the engine once it was parked. York, nevertheless, became enraged, according to the human rights complaint.

Suddenly, Warwick claims, York flew into a rage and started screaming at him.

“You are racist. You probably go to a racist church, go ahead and do that again and see if I don’t f--k you up,” the dispatcher allegedly said to the guard. “I own more houses than you, I make more money than you. This whole sh-t is mine. I can go wherever the f--k I want. You can’t do sh-t to me because I got Feeney in my pocket.”

Rikers Island radio dispatcher Gregory York. (Courtesy of David Warwick)

York was referring to Deputy Commissioner of Quality Assurance and Integrity Patricia Feeney, who oversees fire safety and several other special units.

Patricia Feeney, Department of Correction's Deputy Commissioner of Quality Assurance and Integrity.

After the alleged tirade, Warwick filed a separate EEO complaint alleging sexual harassment which was substantiated, but not before he says he was put under special scrutiny and told to stay out of the office.

After that, Warwick says in the human rights complaint, Feeney retaliated against him.

On May 16 he was told to redo his timesheet. Two days later, his direct boss told him to “stay out in the field all tour, so that you would not be in the office while Gregory York is here.”

During a meeting with Feeney, she accused Warwick of provoking York by recording him with his personal cell phone, according to the complaint. The deputy commissioner wrote up the “corrective interview” and asked Warwick to sign it, but he refused.

Days later, she canceled all his overtime, he says. In spite of being a veteran correction officer, he was forced to itemize everything he did during his shifts and give the report to his boss for review.

In October 2022, his EEO complaint regarding sexual harassment over the vulgar statements was substantiated, but he says no corrective action was taken and York remained on the job. Two weeks later, he was sitting in the office with his cell phone on his desk and his supervisor approached and looked at the phone’s call history.

“York blamed you for making crank calls to him,” according to the complaint. The supervisor did not find any suspicious calls to York and said “[Warwick] did not make any calls or was he on any phone during the time you are accusing him of doing that,” according to the human rights complaint.

The Rikers Island jail complex (Seth Wenig/AP)

Finally, in November, York claimed that Warwick put a noose in his bathroom, but instead of confronting the correction officer with an accusation they transferred him to the Eric M. Taylor Center, a jail on the island where he remains, working 16-hour shifts, the human rights complaint says.

“I go to work now and I sweep the floor. I mop the floor. I’m working in the jail as a sanitation officer in the kitchen, which is not a terrible detail, but did I work 19 years to do that? No, not really,” he said.

When he asked his supervisor if his reassignment had to do with his EEO complaint, the only reply was “I cannot get into it,” Warwick recalled.

Days later, a scheduled meeting with his union representative with the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association was canceled without explanation, Warwick says. The union says a representative was ready to attend the meeting, but that it was the EEO officer who cancelled. They provided text messages that supported their claim.

“We had some serious fires on Rikers Island, where people were injured officers were injured and ended up in the hospital,” Warwick said.

”My client is incredibly brave for speaking out about the racial discrimination at Rikers given the retaliation he has already suffered,” Warwick’s lawyer David H. Rosenberg said.

Over the last year, the fire safety unit has diminished from 13 members to just seven, according to Warwick, but fire incidents continue to grow.

The view of Rikers Island from the Bronx on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

The notorious jail has suffered a string of scandals stemming from mismanagement. There were 19 inmate deaths last year from suicides, overdoses and poor health behind bars.

Excessive violence at the jail was so bad that a federal monitor has been assigned to oversee the facility.

Chronic absenteeism has plagued the correctional facility for years, last year 35% of the correction officers were out on sick leave.

“I come to work and do the right thing and I’m getting penalized,” Warwick said.

“I would like to be reinstated to that unit,” he said. “I put half my career into that unit. And I think I should get some monetary relief from the overtime that I missed being part of that unit.”

The DOC did not respond to a request for comment on the case.

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