City exterminator, 3 others pay misconduct fines

A city exterminator has been fined for driving his official vehicle to a bar, where he spent seven hours getting drunk before causing a multivehicle crash afterward, officials said.

Dashawn Leggett, who’s worked for the health department since 1997, admitted the wrongdoing and agreed to a 40-day suspension without pay worth about $4,867 from his job as a supervising exterminator, the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board said Tuesday.

“Without authorization or a city purpose, I drove a DOHMH vehicle to a bar” at 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 26, 2015, according to a settlement he signed, using the agency’s full title, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “I remained at the bar until approximately 11:00 p.m, at which time I drove the DOHMH vehicle while impaired and caused a multi-vehicle accident” that totaled the vehicle.

A man who answered Leggett’s cellphone on Tuesday said, “You have the wrong person. Have a good day.”

It was unclear Tuesday whether Leggett faced a separate criminal court case because of the crash.

The Conflicts of Interest Board enforces rules against official misconduct by both civil servants and politicians alike that violates the city charter.

Also Tuesday, the board announced settlements punishing:

n a municipal health and hospitals supervisor with a fine of $2,500 for misusing government resources during work hours by designing and printing fliers on city equipment and printers for his wife’s political campaign in New Jersey;

n a “forensic mortuary technician” employed by the city with a $2,000 fine for appearing before the agency as a private funeral director to remove bodies from city morgues.

n a sanitation supervisor — in a suspension worth about $1,906 — for using his vehicle 10 times to deliver produce to a Brooklyn restaurant as a favor.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.