A disabled veteran says he was forced out of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and blackballed from finding another job, according to a lawsuit.
Detectives from DA Ken Thompson’s office even showed up at Jesus Corrales’ home “to ensure that [he] did not take legal action against the District Attorney’s Office,” Corrales claims in his legal filing.
A former assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, Corrales has nerve damage and two useless fingers on his left hand after he was accidentally shot through the palm while training to join the US Army, he told The Post.
He was hired as an assistant district attorney by Thompson, helping to draft and compile criminal complaints for arraignments.
But supervisors “chided” him for low productivity and slow work, Corrales claims in court papers.
His bosses allegedly ignored his requests for an accommodation and began treating him differently, forcing him to quit the $50,000-a-year gig in March 2014, Corrales charges.
Two weeks later, Corrales says he returned to his Astoria, Queens, apartment complex to find three DA detectives quizzing his neighbors about his “comings and goings,” according to court papers.
When he asked the investigators why they were there, Corrales claims he was told, “We just wanted to tell you [that] you shouldn’t harbor any bad feelings, and you shouldn’t go back to the DA’s Office.”
“I said, ‘Excuse me, I wasn’t fired, I resigned,’ ” he recalled. “I was never disciplined. The only issue they had was that they thought my productivity could increase.”
His disabled hand made it difficult to speed up his work, Corrales says.
A few days after the detectives came calling, Corrales says he went to the Brooklyn Criminal Courthouse at 120 Schermerhorn St. to meet a fellow attorney about a job — and found himself detained in a back room for 90 minutes, according to his legal claim.
Corrales says he went through security without incident and sat in a public courtroom on the ground floor to wait for his friend, when a court officer quickly approached him.
He was escorted to a “secluded location” where investigators from Thompson’s office “interrogated [him] about why he was in court,” according to the lawsuit.
“They kept me there for 90 minutes, in a room like I was a defendant, and all I did was walk into the gallery to meet with another attorney,” he fumed.
The Brooklyn DA’s Office slammed Corrales’ accusations as “completely without merit” and claims Corrales was approached at home by investigators in response to “threatening” text messages he allegedly sent to a colleague.
But the texts, provided by a source, are just Corrales complaining about his treatment as a disabled vet.
“I can’t forget how nasty I was treated. I’m focusing on my new life, and career. But I’ve a little business to take care of. The Army taught us that our decisions may result in life or death situations. We were trained to be so thorough that we did not endanger the lives of our subordinates. These people are making decisions with only legal consequences,” according to the messages.
Corrales, who is seeking unspecified damages, vehemently denied making any threats.
“If a threatening text is sufficient probable cause to arrest someone, why wasn’t I arrested?” he said.