Now that’s chutzpah!
A one-time member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s City Hall team who pleaded guilty in May to charges of involvement with child pornography has sued New York City, claiming he is due back pay.
Jacob Schwartz, 31 – a two-year veteran of the city’s Department of Design and Construction — could be sentenced to anywhere from one to three years in prison in July. A trial found he had downloaded images of child porn – reportedly more than 3,000, as well as 89 similarly grotesque videos. Some, prosecutors said, involving kids just six months of age. He was arrested 12 months ago.
But now Schwartz, who was let go after his arrest, is reportedly complaining that he is due money by the city, claiming that he was paid not time and a half, but lesser comp time when he was putting in more than 40 hours per week. The amount he claims he is currently owed totals some $18,000.
According to the New York Post, “The Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit was filed by his father, politically connected labor lawyer Arthur Schwartz. ‘They owed him money and he tried for two years to get paid,’ the elder Schwartz told The Post.” A spokesperson for New York City’s Law Department said the complaint was currently under review.
The younger Schwartz had formerly served as the president of the Manhattan Young Democrats and the downstate regional vice president of the New York State Democrats. According to Fox New, both organizations severed ties with him in the wake of the allegations.
“Last month, Schwartz pleaded guilty to the charge of promoting a sexual performance by a child, as part of a plea deal to serve one to three years in prison,” Fox reported. “He has since been released on a $7,500 cash bail until his sentencing on July 2.”
According to the web site heavy.com, authorities claimed that “the images showed girls — some of them extremely young — performing sex acts on adult men. According to court papers, that included “young nude females between the approximate ages of 6 months and 16, engaging in sexual conduct… on an adult male.”
The web site also reported that leading up to his arrest, Schwartz held a job working for the City of New York, earning a $66,360 salary as a computer programmer analyst in the city Department of Design and Construction. “He worked on the so-called “Build It Back” Hurricane Sandy recovery and resiliency program. Schwartz was fired after being arrested on child porn charges in 2017.”
