An FDNY firefighter was hired after the MTA booted him for fraud — and now faces charges he punched a woman, The Post has learned.
Clyde Phillips, 36, was busted Jan. 18 on multiple misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment for a Jan. 15 incident in a midtown Duane Reade. He punched his ex-girlfriend in her face, charges a complaint filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
The attack was captured on video surveillance footage, cops said.
Phillips was released on his own recognizance, and is due back in court next month. The FDNY did not suspend him.
The firefighter, who made $142,266 last year, works at Engine Co. 234 in Crown Heights.
Phillips joined the FDNY in 2014 as the lowest-scoring of 282 “priority hires” ordered by a Brooklyn federal judge who ruled the minority candidates victims of race bias.
But when the FDNY hired him as a probationary Bravest, Phillips did not quit his job as a train engineer for Metro-North. He requested an unpaid family leave “to care for his children,” the MTA said.
After finding Phillips at the Fire Academy, Metro-North charged him with filing a “fraudulent” leave request, and violating the agency’s “dual-employment” ban.
“I felt his dishonesty was worthy of termination,” Inspector General Barry Kluger told The Post.
Two weeks later, Phillips quit the MTA. He did not return a call.
The FDNY referred the fraud charges to the city Department of Investigation, said spokesman Jim Long. He refused to say whether the FDNY took any other action.
The department will decide what to do about Phillips’ recent arrest after the case is adjudicated, he said.