Community Board 6’s Craig Hammerman is taking an unpaid 60-day leave from his job beginning May 17, claiming he needs to “get over” the former lover he’s accused of stalking, his lawyer said.
“He’s been abused by this woman and she’s been playing him,” said Joyce David said of her embattled client. “He needs to get his head together, and also he needs to get over her.”
Police cuffed Hammerman — who has worked at CB6 since 1990 and is paid $112,000 a year to be its district manager — on two occasions in March; once for allegedly using his ex-girlfriend’s Uber account to track her to a Bedford-Stuyvesant hotel, and once for being in a Park Slope bar she was also in, thus violating a protection order she has against him.
Hammerman’s attorney maintained her client’s innocence, claiming they have turned down a plea deal offered by Brooklyn prosecutors that would leave him with a clean record and no jail time, according to David, who added the former lover was “erratic.”
“I feel pretty confident we’ll prevail if we go to trial,” said David.
Hammerman had continued at his post since the arrest, and board chairman Sayar Lonial said the group will wait for the “legal process to take its course” before the taking any action against its district manager.
Still, his faith in the legal system hasn’t erased concerns regarding effects the allegations have had on the board’s reputation, and he, along with members of the board’s Finance, Personnel, and Law Committee, have discussed potential disciplinary measures with the city’s Law Department,
Any punitive actions taken against Hammerman, who runs the day-to-day operations of the board — would require a full-board vote.
During his absence, other Community Board 6’s staffers will fill in for Hammerman.
His roughly two-month absence is being taken under the Family Medical Leave Act, a federal law mandating employers provide job protection during unpaid leaves.
