A former Correction Department general counsel who courted controversy in 2023 when he said heart failure killed a detainee later found to have died of a skull facture has returned to the agency as a senior advisor, the agency confirmed Friday.
Paul Shechtman, a former federal prosecutor and veteran defense lawyer who previously represented ex-correction union boss Norman Seabrook, is returning after stepping down in early September following a furor over the death of detainee Joshua Valles.
Department spokesman Frank Dwyer said Shechtman will advise Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie on all department matters.
Shechtman, the former general counsel now an advisor, was originally named general counsel in 2022 under then-Commissioner Louis Molina.
He came under some criticism from the federal monitor tracking violence and use of force in the jails after suggesting May 23 that detainee Valles died of a heart-related issue with “no foul play” suspected. An autopsy later showed Valles had suffered a skull fracture.
Shechtman then said the head injury could relate to a previous fight but that altercation allegedly took place weeks before Valles died.
On May 31, the federal violence monitor described the remarks as “premature at best.” “There is no question that investigation of this incident is necessary,” the monitor wrote.
On June 5, Stan German, head of the New York County Defender Services, called for a federal investigation into Valles’ death. “The monitor’s disclosure reveals a pattern of obfuscation of the truth within NYC jails,” German wrote.
Dwyer, the Correction Department spokesman, said Shechtman’s departure had nothing to do with the Valles incident.
Schechtman was previously Seabrook’s lawyer in the high-profile federal case alleging the union boss took a bribe from a hedge fund manager in exchange for approving a union investment with the fund.
Seabrook was convicted and sentenced in 2019 to nearly five years in federal prison. He was released early in February 2023 by a federal judge who shortened his sentence to correspond with that of a co-defendant, who had earlier been released.
Meanwhile, the department announced Friday that Francis Torres, previously the deputy commissioner in charge of programs, had been promoted to first deputy commissioner. She succeeds Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, who was appointed correction commissioner by Mayor Adams on Dec. 8.
Torres, a CUNY graduate, joined the agency in 2002 as director of educational services. The tasks of her new post will include overseeing the agency’s buildings, its transportation fleet, and its health management — which includes keeping track of officers who are out sick, the department said.
“Francis has dedicated the better part of her distinguished career to positively impacting the lives of both uniformed and non-uniformed staff at the Department of Correction, while also developing, managing, and enhancing program opportunities for persons in custody,” said Maginley-Liddie.
Torres, notably, was thrust into the spotlight in 2023 when the Adams administration cut $17 million from outside nonprofits which had long provided counseling and other services in the jails. The plan at the time was to run those programs using correction staff — causing a wave of skepticism that it could be done.
The department told the Board of Correction on Tuesday that one of those nonprofits, the Fortune Society, had returned to one jail on a limited basis. It was unclear whether the funding cuts will be restored, however.
Fortune Society President Stanley Richards confirmed the group is providing limited services in the Eric M. Taylor Center on Rikers Island and said he appreciated the commissioner’s outreach.
“We hope the city rethinks the cuts and increases our capacity to engage in the full suite of services and provide continuity of care from jail to the community,” he said. “We need additional funding to reestablish the level and intensity of the programs we once provided prior to the $17 million cut in programs. The previous cuts were penny-wise and pound-foolish.”
