PUCKHKEEPSIE Since taking office on January 1, 2024, district attorney Anthony Parisi and three former assistant district attorneys for Dutchess County have been served with notices of intent to sue. Bob Knapp, Cindy Murphy, and Kristine Whelan were the three at-will workers that Parisi fired shortly after assuming office. Each of the three alleges to have experienced monetary losses as well as reputational harm.
From February 1995 until January11,2024, Dutchess County employed Prosecutor Knapp. Following Parisi’s dismissal, Knapp and fellow dismissed prosecutor Cindy Murphy were employed by the Ulster County District Attorney, carrying out work that was very identical, and sharing coverage under the New York State and Local Retirement System. Kristine Whelan, a former prosecutor from Dutchess, has joined the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office.
Knapp alleges that he was locked out of the Dutchess County-owned laptop computer he was assigned to shortly after he was fired. He acknowledged using the computer to store a variety of personal documents, including his legal education training records and records of his veteran military tax returns, family medical records, and other personal family records. Knapp claims that the records were returned on a thumb drive after a two-month wait, but he is unsure if the records are all that were originally there.
Using the same New Jersey lawyer who is defending Knapp, Whelan filed a virtually verbatim Notice of Claim in which she claims that being fired on January 11 also caused her to be locked out of the county computer system right away. Whelan claims that shortly after her dismissal, her office computer was taken away, preventing her from accessing her personal data that were kept on the county-owned machine. According to Whelan, the files contained work product, pictures, family medical records, and details about her late parents. Like Knapp, Whelan claims that the Dutchess County District Attorney’s office was given a thumb drive containing some of her personal files, but not her nearly thirty years’ worth of work output or law education documents.
After being fired on January 11, Cindy Murphy filed a Notice of Claim seeking compensation, but she opted to represent herself. According to the Ulster County ADA, she was let go 11 months before she had worked for Dutchess County for 30 years, despite a contract that stated Dutchess County would cover 80% of her lifelong medical insurance costs and 65% of her family’s after she had worked for 25 years. The prosecution alleges that Dutchess County has not fulfilled this part of my employment contract and has declined to pay my family’s health insurance plan in full.
Murphy claims that because Parisi made her pay the full cost of comparable family health insurance, which she described as a significant monthly expense for herself and her children, she suffered financial losses as a result of her termination. Murphy claims that her reputation was harmed by the dismissal, and she intends to file a defamation lawsuit.
Knapp and Whelan are requesting damages, severance pay, complete restoration of their medical benefits, and full pension benefits. Knapp also wants his personal belongings returned.
The plaintiffs could not be reached for comment. Anthony Parisi, the district attorney for Dutchess County, said that, before the terminations, he conferred with the office of the county attorney to make sure the personnel matters were managed to avoid needless lawsuits. Regarding the Notices of Claim Parisi to Mid-Hudson News, please contact the Dutchess County Attorney’s Office with any queries regarding ongoing litigation as my office is unable to respond to them.
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