RIOC President And General Counsel File Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against Members Of NY Governor Kathy Hochul's Executive Chamber, DHCR Commissioner And Staff - Charge Local Elected Officials Krueger, Seawright & RI Daily With Contributing To Racist Backlash And New RIOC Directors Are Antagonistic

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) President Shelton Haynes has been absent from several recent events he would be expected to attend including the September 14 RIOC Board Of Directors meeting. 

During last Thursday's RIOC Board meeting, RIOC General Counsel Gretchen Robinson read out loud the written President's Report submitted by the missing Mr Haynes. According to Ms Robinson:

... This is from Shelton. A message from him, who is out sick unfortunately on extended leave...

Mr Haynes may be on extended leave for a while. 

On September 12, two days before Ms Robinson read the President's Report, both Mr Haynes and Ms Robinson filed a racial discrimination lawsuit in the Southern District Of NY against members of NY State Governor Kathy Hochul's Executive Chamber as well as the Commissioner, General Counsel and Deputy Counsel of the NY State Division of Homes and Community Renewal.

Though not named as defendants in the lawsuit, Mr Haynes and Ms Robinson claim in their lawsuit that NY State Senator Liz Krueger, NY State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright and Roosevelt Island Daily publisher David Stone contributed to a "racist backlash" against them.

The lawsuit also claims that Mr Haynes and Ms Robinson were excluded from the appointment process of 3 new RIOC Board Members in an attempt to undermine their authority and "ability to discharge their job functions." Haynes and Robinson claim the 3 new RIOC board members are antagonistic to them.

Read the full lawsuit complaint.

During the September 14 RIOC Board meeting plantiff Gretchen Robinson was sitting next to and interacting with defendant Diana Lopez as shown in the video above. Also following the meeting, Ms Robinson was seen in a several minutes long discussion with defendants Diana Lopez and Allejandro Valella as well as RIOC Board Member Howard Polivy.

On September 15, RIOC released an internal investigation into allegations of improprieties made against Mr Haynes. Here are the findings.

 According to Mr Haynes:

pic.twitter.com/XvLwt9J4M9

— Shelton J Haynes (@sheltonjhaynes) September 16, 2023

 Apparently the Tweet was deleted. Here's a screenshot.

This story is still developing. Stay tune.