• Lt. Quathisha Epps earned $406,000 including overtime in fiscal year 2024
• Detective Ingrid Sanders made $352,000 with $163,000 in overtime as chief’s driver
• NYPD now demands $232,000 back from Epps for fraudulent overtime claims

NEW YORK, NY (TDR) — Multiple female officers working directly for NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey earned massive overtime payments that catapulted their salaries into the top ranks of the nation’s largest police department. The explosive scandal involving allegations of sex-for-overtime has prompted federal investigations, mass resignations and a department-wide purge of leadership.

Lt. Quathisha Epps emerged as the department’s highest-paid officer in fiscal year 2024, taking home $406,515 despite holding an administrative desk position. Her base salary of $164,477 was more than doubled by $204,453 in overtime payments, according to payroll records obtained by the New York Post.

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Records show Epps somehow logged 1,627 hours of overtime during the fiscal year, equivalent to working 74 hours per week on top of her normal shifts. The staggering overtime totals placed her earnings above every other officer in the department, including the police commissioner.

Driver Earned Third of Million Dollars

Detective Ingrid Sanders, who served as Maddrey’s driver, earned the seventh-highest overtime in the department with $163,414 in extra pay. Her total compensation reached $352,462 for fiscal year 2024, records show.

Sanders, a first-grade detective at the top pay grade, worked 1,456 overtime hours while serving in the Chief of Department’s office. She had followed Maddrey through multiple assignments, transferring with him from the Patrol Services Bureau when he was promoted to the department’s highest uniformed position in December 2022.

A third officer, Detective Ada Reyes, also benefited from her connection to Maddrey. She earned $42,500 as a new police officer in 2019, but her pay jumped to $154,405 in 2024, including $55,923 in overtime.

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Sexual Coercion Allegations

The overtime bonanza unraveled when Epps filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint in December 2024 alleging Maddrey had coerced her into unwanted sexual favors in exchange for the lucrative overtime opportunities.

According to the complaint, Maddrey exploited Epps’ “emotional and financial vulnerabilities, as well as her history of childhood trauma” to force sexual encounters beginning in June 2023. The alleged abuse typically occurred in his office at One Police Plaza, the department’s Manhattan headquarters.

“He says close the door. And it was in this moment when things changed for the worse. He’s dressed in a T-shirt, work pants and no shoes on. And the way he was sitting you could not readily see that his pants were open.”

Epps told ABC7 New York in an exclusive interview that Maddrey described himself as “sick” and “a predator” during the first encounter. She said he targeted her because she was experiencing financial difficulties, having gone from a two-income household to one during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The complaint further alleged that Maddrey demanded monetary kickbacks from her inflated overtime pay, including requiring her to fund a Miami trip for him and his wife. “He says, ‘oh, you’re going to start cutting me some of that overtime.’ So, I would give him money,” Epps stated.

Maddrey’s Defense and Resignation

Maddrey resigned abruptly on December 20, 2024, hours before the Post published its explosive report on the allegations. Through his attorney Lambros Lambrou, the former chief admitted to having a “consensual, adult relationship” with Epps but denied providing overtime in exchange for sex.

“Lieutenant Epps got caught with her hand in the cookie jar and is trying to deflect her wrongdoing by making these allegations,” Lambrou told reporters at a December press conference. The attorney characterized Epps as a “self-professed swinger” under investigation for stealing time and claimed they possessed “X rated and racy videos and photographs from Lieutenant Epps.”

Lambrou insisted Maddrey had no authority to approve overtime payments and was unaware of Epps’ earnings. However, Epps’ attorney Eric Sanders countered that the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the NYPD would have been well aware of overtime protocols and manipulated the system.

“There can be no ‘consent’ in a workplace where one individual wields immense power over another’s livelihood.”

Department Demands Repayment

In April 2025, the NYPD sent Epps an “Overpayment Notification” demanding she return $231,896.75 in overtime wages. The letter stated that after reviewing her overtime records from July 2023 through October 2024, investigators determined she was paid for work she didn’t perform.

“As we started to look into the allegations of overtime abuse, we found that she claimed overtime for work she didn’t do,” a source familiar with the investigation told the Daily News.

NYPD Deputy Chief Paul Saraceno, who oversaw overtime approval as Maddrey’s second-in-command, was terminated in April after investigators determined he signed off on nearly 200 overtime slips submitted by Epps last fall. Records show Saraceno approved more than 170 backdated slips in a single day.

Sanders’ attorney called the repayment demand “retaliatory, discriminatory, and illegal.” In a statement, Epps declared she would “not be silenced” and characterized the demand as punishment for speaking up. “This isn’t just my fight—it’s the fight of every woman who dared to speak up and was punished for it,” she said.

Federal Investigation Expands

Federal prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Southern District of New York launched an investigation focused on whether federal funds were misused to pay for stolen overtime. On January 2, 2025, FBI agents executed search warrants at Maddrey’s Queens home and his office at One Police Plaza.

Sanders and Reyes also had their homes raided by federal investigators, who served them with grand jury subpoenas identifying them as subjects in the probe. Law enforcement sources told the Post the women aren’t considered targets and aren’t facing charges, but remain “in the center of this storm.”

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office separately confirmed it is investigating Epps’ allegations of sexual coercion and abuse.

Leadership Purge and Reforms

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch responded to the scandal by ousting dozens of NYPD brass in a shocking December 2024 purge that began with bosses at the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau. Chief of Internal Affairs Miguel Iglesias was removed hours after Maddrey’s resignation and subsequently retired.

Six people in the Chief of Department’s office were reassigned immediately following Maddrey’s departure. Sanders opted to retire rather than accept reassignment to Queens. Reyes was transferred to public housing after the scandal broke.

Tisch implemented new overtime management policies aimed at restoring “honor and integrity throughout the NYPD.” The reforms included limiting subway overtime hours despite surging violence in the transit system, a move police sources criticized as punishing rank-and-file officers for abuse at the top.

Adams Administration Connections

Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain himself, had consistently promoted and defended Maddrey despite the chief’s checkered history. Adams appointed Maddrey to the top uniformed position even after a 2015 allegation that he got in a physical altercation with an underling he was having an affair with and lied to Internal Affairs about it.

The scandal adds to mounting troubles for the Adams administration. In September 2024, Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned after federal agents searched his home as part of investigations into the mayor’s inner circle. Adams himself faces federal corruption charges in a separate case.

Will the federal investigation uncover additional officers who benefited from the sex-for-overtime scheme?

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