NYC NOW - Midday News: Former NYPD Lawyer Sues Over Firing, Delacorte Theater Reopens, and Legionella Inspections Scrutinized

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

A former top NYPD lawyer is suing the department, saying she was pushed out after recommending discipline against a close ally of Mayor Eric Adams. Meanwhile, the Delacorte Theater in Central Park reopens tonight with a star-studded production of Twelfth Night after a major renovation. Plus, WNYC's analysis finds city inspections for Legionella dropped to post-pandemic lows ahead of a Harlem outbreak that has killed three and sickened dozens. Reporter Joe Hong joins us to break down the data.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, August 7th. Here's the midday news from Veronica DeValle. A former top NYPD attorney is suing the department, claiming she was forced out after recommending disciplinary action against a close associate of Mary Eric Adams. Amy Litwin was in charge of recommending discipline in the department. She says in the suit, she issued a detailed report. claiming former Chief of Department Jeffrey Madry improperly voided the arrest of a former police officer. Months later, Litwin says she was fired by ex-police commissioner Edward Caban.

City Hall and the NYPD didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Attorneys for Caban and Madri also did not respond. The Delacourt Theater, home of Shakespeare in the park, reopens tonight after an 18-month renovation. The first production is 12th night, starring Lupita Nyango, Sandra O. and Peter Dinklage and New Yorkers, as they've done for four decades, waited in Central Park for free tickets this morning. Reporter Jeff London has more. The line was long and winding and people were camped out in folding chairs on blankets. There was even a hammock. They were all waiting for the chance to be in the first audience

at the newly rebuilt Delicourt. This morning I got here at 4.30. Mary Flum Peterson was at the head of the line. She's been coming to free Shakespeare in the park since college and has been returning every year since. Peterson says she loves the camaraderie of the ticket line and decided she didn't want to miss tonight's show. We missed it so much last year. I think those of us that are back tonight are just appreciative that it's reopened. 12th night runs through September 14th. 79 and sunny right now. Great weather. Stick around. There's more to come. YC.

On WNYC, I'm David First. Inspections for the Legionella bacteria in New York City's cooling tower sank to a record post-pandemic low in the months leading up to the outbreak of the disease in and around Harlem. That's according to a WNYC analysis of publicly available data. The city's health department says this outbreak has so far killed three people and sickened at least 73 others. joining us to talk about the analysis is WNYC's data reporter Joe Hong. And Joe, very quickly, before we get into the inspections, how do the cooling towers work? And why are they potentially dangerous? Yeah, so these cooling towers typically sit on top of buildings like apartments, and they work with the building's HVAC system to help circulate water throughout the building.

and this water absorbs the heat in the building to help cool it. And once the warm water gets back into the tower, the hot water sort of evaporates, and that's how the heat gets dispelled. Now, the warm water that sits in these towers, they can breed deadly bacteria if these towers aren't properly cleaned and maintained. Bacteria like the Legionella bacteria,

which then sort of gets transmitted as vapor. And back in 2015, we had a really bad outbreak where 138 people got sick and 16 people died. How did the city respond to that outbreak? They created new regulations. So they required building owners to register these cooling towers on their buildings. They had to submit proof of inspections by a qualified, you know, professional. and they had to regularly get them cleaned. Now, the building owners also had to test for the Legionella bacteria every three months,

and they had to report to the city when the bacteria was found. And on top of that, the city health department conducts inspections to make sure that they're in compliance and that these cooling towers are safe. Okay, so what did you find out about how frequently those inspections are being conducted? by the health department. Yeah, so the city told me that they tried to inspect every tower, you know, every, every year. But we've seen a steep decline since 2017, which is the year when the city first started inspecting these towers.

That year, we saw over 5,000 cooling towers inspected by the city. And right now we're on track to see maybe half of that this year. And back in 2017, the city, the city. city found 48,000 violations, and this year they only found a couple hundred so far. And between 2017 and now, it's just been a steady trend of declines and inspections year over year. And right now, we have about 4,900 registered towers in the city, and 40% of them have not been inspected by the city since 2023.

and 85 of them have no record of being ever inspected by the city, according to the public data. Ever being inspected? What have we heard from city officials about this drop in inspections? So the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which is the agency that does the inspections, they cited short staffing, but I wasn't able to get details on just how severe those staff shortages were. Michelle Morris, the commissioner of the health department, told WNIC yesterday that the regulation sort of helped mitigate the spread of this current outbreak that we're looking at. But it's unclear if this law that authorizes the city to inspect these towers, whether the law is better at helping the city respond to outbreaks or if it's actually being used to prevent outbreaks. WNMIC data reporter Joe Hong.

Joe, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.