Updated (3): NYC Mayor's Wife's Chief of Staff Lives With Man With Long Arrest Record, Given A Pass

Posted September 25, 2014 10:14 PM ET; Last updated October 10, 2014 4:48 PM ET


Hassaun McFarlan (right), Convicted of Homicide

[From article]
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s embattled aide Rachel Noerdlinger was with her convicted killer boyfriend when he was busted for marijuana possession after the couple was pulled over in a car that reeked of pot, DNA Info reported.
Hassaun McFarlan was driving Noerdlinger — who works as chief of staff to de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray — and an underage passenger in the back seat when they were pulled over for driving down the wrong side of the street toward oncoming traffic on Sept. 27, 2011, Edgewater (NJ) Police Department records show.
An officer approached the car and “could smell a strong odor of burnt marijuana coming from the vehicle,” he wrote.
The cop asked McFarlan to step outside, at which point “he threw two clear zip lock baggies of marijuana onto the driver’s seat,” according to the report.
[. . .]
Noerdlinger was slapped with a violation for allowing her boyfriend to get behind the wheel of her Mercedes-Benz without a license, the records show.
[. . .]
He was busted for giving the officer a fake name and address to avoid $1,575 in active warrants, records show.
Last week, the Department of Investigation discovered Noerdlinger did not disclose that she lived in Edgewater with her ex-con boyfriend, McFarlan, on her government background paperwork.

http://nypost.com/2014/10/10/de-blasio-aide-was-with-killer-boyfriend-when-he-was-busted-for-pot/

De Blasio aide was with killer boyfriend when he was busted for pot
By Danika Fears
October 10, 2014 | 11:16am

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[From article]
Noerdlinger failed to list her remaining debt from a 2011 IRS tax lien of $28,190 on a public financial disclosure form that the Conflicts of Interest Board requires all top city officials to file each year.
It’s the latest instance of first lady Chirlane McCray’s chief of staff withholding sensitive information.
[. . .]
Noerdlinger, an ex-aide to the Rev. Al Sharpton and an associate of scandalized lawyer Sanford Rubenstein, has since entered into a payment plan to settle up, according to her attorney.
[. . .]
The mayor’s office insisted the omission wasn’t a big deal.
[. . .]
The DOI has traditionally released its findings after cases are closed and the targets of investigations face penalties.
Noerdlinger got a mild slap on the wrist — a notice in her personnel file — for not listing her boyfriend on the background check.
DOI concluded Noerdlinger had not provided McFarlan’s name when specifically asked to identify whom she lives with — but concluded the omission wasn’t an attempt to deceive.

http://nypost.com/2014/10/10/mccray-aide-left-28k-irs-tax-lien-off-disclosure-form/

McCray aide left $28K IRS tax lien off disclosure form
By Tara Palmeri and Yoav Gonen
New York Post
October 10, 2014 | 3:56am

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Updated October 5, 2014 5:57 PM ET

[From article]
Instead, the de Blasio administration tried to ride out the latest storm involving Chief of Staff Rachel Noerdlinger, who got only a slap on the wrist for not reporting her living arrangement with longtime boyfriend Hassaun McFarlan on a Department of Investigation background check.
Noerdlinger, who earns $170,000 a year, was a longtime aide for the Rev. Al Sharpton, a close ally and adviser of Mayor de Blasio.
“DOI found no evidence of intent to deceive the mayor or City Hall,” said mayoral spokesman Phil Walzak.
[. . .]
McFarlan — who has been convicted of drug trafficking and manslaughter and has called cops “pigs” on social media — has lived with Noerdlinger for six years, sources say. They currently live in Edgewater, NJ.
The DOI form clearly states that willful omissions “may result . . . in termination.”
[. . .]
The inquiry’s conclusion raises questions about the close relationship between the mayor and his handpicked DOI commissioner, Mark Peters — who served as treasurer on de Blasio’s mayoral campaign in 2013.
Peters was confirmed by City Council in a 48-2 vote in February, although a number of members expressed concerns at the time.
“Mark Peters is doing his friend a big favor,” ex-state Assemblyman Michael Benjamin said Friday, referring to de Blasio. “It just confirms what the ordinary worker in city government already knows when it comes to discipline: It’s about who you know.”
[. . .]
“If she didn’t mean to lie, then the next question is . . . is she incompetent and cannot read. Because if she is incompetent, then she doesn’t belong in that position,” [Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association] said.

http://nypost.com/2014/10/04/mccray-aide-spared-discipline-for-failing-to-disclose-romance/

McCray aide spared discipline for failing to disclose romance
By Carl Campanile, Tara Palmeri and Yoav Gonen
New York Post
October 4, 2014 | 1:34am

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Updated October 2, 2014 8:55 PM ET

[From article]
None of this would matter publicly if McFarlan’s girlfriend’s boss, the mayor’s wife, did not play so central a role in New York City governance. But she does. “As I’ve said probably a thousand times,” de Blasio declared of McCray, “she’s my most important adviser and the person I’m closest to in the world—and the person I listen to the most.” That’s not hyperbole—the mayor listed his wife alongside himself on his campaign’s organization chart, and New York Magazine reports that since the inauguration, people describe them as “virtual co-mayors.” “Understand Chirlane and you’ll understand me,” de Blasio once said. “We do everything as a couple—we think as a couple.” McCray has approved and often interviewed all important hires in her husband’s administration, from commissioners and deputy mayors on down, and she has ensured that women and minorities are heavily represented in their ranks. In addition, she runs the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, controlling a $50 million-plus pot of public and private money to set up pilot programs for everything from youth employment to immigrant assistance, as she sees fit.
[. . .]
McCray hired Noerdlinger after her husband’s inauguration at a salary of $170,000. Many New Yorkers believe that states and cities don’t have “first ladies,” that the nation’s only First Lady lives on Pennsylvania Avenue. Many also don’t see why McCray, who fashions herself on social media as #FLONYC, is spending so many of their tax dollars on a chief of staff, when even Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s wife, Donna Hanover, paid her chief of staff $53,580. Indeed, only 27 percent of New Yorkers told pollsters that they thought a mayor’s wife should have any city policymaking role (perhaps especially so with a mayor who won with the ballots of only 16 percent of registered voters). But, as de Blasio says, McCray is his closest advisor, and Noerdlinger is “a very influential figure in City Hall,” according to one of de Blasio’s closest aides.

http://www.city-journal.org/2014/eon1001mm.html

Myron Magnet
Strange Bedfellows Make Strange Politics
Understanding the Rachel Noerdlinger affair
1 October 2014


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Rachel Noerdlinger (left), the chief of staff to First Lady Chirlane McCray who has attended top-level NYPD meetings, has been romantically linked to Hassaun McFarlan since 2010. Court and police records show that the two have lived together for nearly two years.
[From article]
A senior advisor to Mayor Bill de Blasio is in a serious relationship with a convicted killer and interstate drug trafficker whose most recent run-in with the law happened late last year — when he nearly ran over a New Jersey police officer while driving her car, records show.
Rachel Noerdlinger, the chief of staff to First Lady Chirlane McCray who has attended top-level NYPD meetings, has been romantically linked to Hassaun McFarlan since 2010. Court and police records show that the two have lived together for nearly two years.
McFarlan, 36, has been arrested at least five times, including for the fatal shooting of a teenager over a down jacket, records show.
Two of the arrests occurred while he was dating Noerdlinger, a former aide to the Rev. Al Sharpton. While they’ve been an item, McFarlan has also trashed police officers on his Facebook account, referring to them as “pigs” in two posts.

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140925/civic-center/senior-de-blasio-aide-dates-convicted-killer-who-calls-police-pigs

Senior De Blasio Aide Dates Convicted Killer Who Calls Police 'Pigs'

By James Fanelli

September 25, 2014 3:28pm