Kevin Geddie

Two testers — one Black, one white — approached Geddie seeking homes priced up to $2.5 million. The state alleged, based on Newsday’s findings, that Geddie steered the Black tester toward more racially diverse areas while steering the white tester away from those areas. He also made a comment that the Hispanic community “took over” Springs, a hamlet in the Town of East Hampton. There was substantial evidence to conclude Geddie engaged in discriminatory conduct, an administrative law judge ruled. “The respondent’s behavior is the kind of behavior the Fair Housing Act was enacted to address,” the judge wrote. Giving his opinions about school districts “was an easy way to steer [the white tester] to the Sag Harbor and Southampton school districts which were less racially diverse.” At an online State Senate hearing in 2020, Geddie said any suggestion that he discriminated was "utterly unfounded." He said the difference in listings was "minor" and caused by a difference in the testers' preferred locations, and he said his comment about the Hispanic community was "clumsy" but intended to be positive: "It should be obvious, even to a casual listener, that this reference, in context, does not reflect discrimination." Geddie declined to comment.