NYC Assemblyman Eddie Gibbs accused in lawsuit of unlawfully firing adviser day before amputation surgery
A former senior adviser to Harlem Assemblyman Eddie Gibbs alleges in a new lawsuit that the uptown politician abruptly and illegally fired him last summer, a day before he was set to undergo amputation surgery related to diabetes.
Keith Lilly, a fixture of Harlem politics who made his bones in public service working for late City Councilman Bill Perkins in the 1990s, filed the lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday and shared it exclusively with the Daily News.
In the court papers, Lilly charges that Gibbs discriminated against him on the basis of a disability when he fired him on July 26, 2023 in violation of state and city human rights laws. He’s asking for at least $500,000 in compensatory damages for “emotional pain and suffering” as well as backpay, attorney’s fees and reimbursement for lost 401(k) contributions.
Gibbs — who faces a competitive challenge in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election — didn’t immediately return a request for comment via his Assembly office Friday.
Lilly’s lawsuit alleges the timing of his termination is key to his discrimination claim.
On July 24, 2023, Gibbs and another staffer visited Lilly at Mount Sinai Hospital, where he had been admitted days earlier after discovering what he describes in court papers as “a hole” in his left foot, according to the lawsuit. During the visit, Lilly alleges he told Gibbs that doctors had determined the hole was caused by his underlying diabetes, that the hole had grown severely infected and that several of his toes would need to be amputated.
“I’ll probably be here for a while,” Lilly told Gibbs from his hospital bed, according to court papers.
Two days later, on July 26, 2023 — the day before his amputation procedure — Gibbs called Lilly and told him he had been fired.
“Gibbs provided Lilly with no explanation for his decision to terminate his employment, which he did not attempt to justify,” the lawsuit says. “At the time of this termination, Lilly had received no negative performance feedback of any kind, had not received any performance warnings, and had not been subjected to any form of employee discipline.”
After Lilly’s toes were amputated, doctors found that the infection had spread, according to the lawsuit. As a result, he had to undergo a second amputation procedure to remove his left leg up to his knee, the lawsuit says.
“In my darkest hour, I faced both personal and professional devastation,” Lilly told The News.
Left without health insurance after his termination, Lilly has launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds for his medical bills. As of Friday, he has received $21,518 in donations.
In addition to human rights laws, Lilly claims his axing violated the Family and Medical Leave Act, which gives New Yorkers protections against termination while on medical absence. The effective date of his firing came just days before his one-year anniversary as a senior adviser in Gibbs’ office, which would’ve made him eligible for protections under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Seeking reelection for the East Harlem-based 68th Assembly District, Gibbs faces a challenge in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election from Xavier Santiago, a local community board chairman.
