The New York Daily News by BRENDAN BROSH - August 11, 2009
An NYPD captain who exposed himself in a Queens subway station while on duty got off with a slap on the wrist Monday - and his full pension. Transit Bureau Capt. Jeffrey Klimas tried to fondle a 20-year-old man in a bathroom at the Union Turnpike station in Kew Gardens in May 2008, prosecutors said. Klimas pleaded guilty to public lewdness and disorderly conduct in October 2008. Prosecutors asked for the misdemeanor lewdness charges to be dismissed after he completed a psychotherapy program and agreed to resign from the NYPD. Klimas - who started with the NYPD in 1983 - was docked 11 vacation days, but left the force with his full pension, his lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman said. Queens Criminal Court Judge Stephanie Zaro told Klimas to "stay out of trouble for a year." The 20-year-old man told police investigators he was involved in a romantic relationship with the married cop. Klimas, 52, was charged with two counts of public lewdness and suspended from the force at the time. The veteran transit officer was also accused of fondling a teenager on the No. 4 train in 2003. Those charges were reportedly dismissed as unfounded.
Prior News Article:
Police Captain Grilled
The New York Post by John Doyle, Larry Celona and Dan Mangan
May 28, 2008 -- An NYPD captain allegedly sexually exposed himself to a young man at a Queens subway station yesterday while on duty, and was taken into custody after the victim alerted a cop, police sources said.Transit Bureau Capt. Jeffrey Klimas, 51, was charged with two counts of public lewdness last night, given a desk-appearance ticket, and suspended. Multiple police sources said the married father of two had long been suspected of trolling for encounters in the subway system, despite being executive officer of the Transit Bureau's Special Operations District. A police source called the 25-year veteran "eccentric" and "like a Jim McGreevey" - referring to the gay former New Jersey governor's penchant for searching for sex with men at highway rest stops while still closeted. The source said Klimas, who lives with his paralegal wife, Loraine, in New Hyde Park, LI, signed in yesterday morning at the District 20 Transit Bureau at the Van Wyck/Briarwood station in Queens, then boarded an F train, in plainclothes for his Brooklyn office. He got off at the Union Turnpike station and exposed himself to a young man in a station bathroom, sources said. The young man saw a cop and reported that he had been accosted, a source said. "The cop goes with him, and [the man] points out the guy, and it's Klimas," the source said. Klimas ran away and when the cop apprehended him, the captain became irate, saying, "Don't you know who I am," identifying himself by name and rank, sources said. The second lewdness count against Klimas stems from an April 2007 incident, also at a Queens subway station, but details were not immediately available. "He did it again," said another high-ranking police source, who was aware of another incident in which Klimas was caught allegedly soliciting a man in 2003 but escaped without charges. In that incident, a teen claimed Klimas fondled him on a No. 4 train. The youth ran off the train at Borough Hall and pointed out the captain. But an investigation determined the claim was unfounded, saying the accuser was emotionally disturbed, sources said. Klimas' neighbors were shocked that the deeply religious man known for his regular attendance at church was caught up in a sex scandal. "In a million years, I wouldn't believe that," said Annette Palazzollo, a neighbor and close friend. "He's a wonderful man. He's good with his children. He's always playing with his son outside." Additional reporting by Tatiana Deligiannakis, Erika Martinez, Reuven Fenton and Peter Cox john.doyle@nypost.com
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