Bernard Kerik has admitted to having sexual relations with a female corrections officer while serving as first deputy commissioner of the department.
Kerik was forced to answer questions about his steamy romance with correction worker Janet Pinero in sworn testimony Dec. 9, responding to a civil-rights lawsuit filed against him and the city.
Former city prison warden Eric DeRavin has charged that Kerik – who went on to become head of the department and then the city’s police commissioner – denied him numerous promotions because he had clashed with Pinero.
“Did you have a sexual relationship with Ms. Pinero?” DeRavin’s lawyer, Gregory Lisi, asked in a deposition.
“Yes,” Kerik said.
He said the romance started in 1995, lasted “six to nine months, maybe” – and stressed that it didn’t affect his decision-making.
“We remained friends. We still remain friends,” said Kerik, who wed his wife, Hala, in 1998.
He has been accused of continuing to have simultaneous affairs with Pinero and publisher Judith Regan even after his marriage.
Publicly, Kerik has admitted only to “close relationships” with them.
Kerik has been in the eye of the storm since withdrawing his nomination to head Homeland Security, after admitting he didn’t properly register or pay taxes for his family nanny.
In his deposition, Kerik described how he first noticed the pretty Pinero milling about at work.
In her deposition, Pinero revealed that the pair met on a blind date for dinner.