Man sues city, claims desk job turned into manual labor

He was hired to be an investigator — but was allegedly treated like a pack mule.

An administrator for the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board was forced to perform manual labor at his office job, and eventuallu quit to escape “grotesque bigotry and hostility” from his supervisors, he said in a lawsuit.

Nigerian-born Ademola Bello was the only desk worker at the CCRB’s Division of Financial and Strategic Management ever asked by his bosses “to haul furniture, office supplies, boxes of paper and filing cabinets,” he claimed in court papers.

Winnie Chen, the CCRB’s director of budget and operations, and Jeanine Marie, the agency’s deputy executive director, treated Bello, 52, like “property” and “chattel labor,” which left him “emotionally battered and psychologically depleted,” the Nigerian native said in the July 16 legal filing.

Bello, who started working for the CCRB in September 2023 as a civilian investigator and transitioned to Chen’s department that December, where the Columbia Journalism School grad — alleged he was singled out for “strenuous manual labor” due to his “African identity.”

“They tried to cover up all these things, it was just so bad,” Bello told The Post this week. “And it was because of my nationality.”

He was repeatedly asked to do tasks “utterly incongruous with his administrative duties and physical capacity,” like moving furniture, and in early 2025, he sustained an “acute knee injury” lifting a large box, according to the lawsuit.

Even though the city confirmed his injury was work related, Chen allegedly urged him to “rub [his knee with] her ‘Chinese oil,’ or face consequences” and pushed him to drop a worker’s compensation claim.

When he refused Chen’s “nontraditional herbal treatment…her abuse escalated,” he said in court papers.

Bello was the only person in the office who wasn’t allowed to eat at his desk and his requests for pay raises or remote work privileges were denied, unlike his “non-African, less qualified” colleagues, he alleged.

And he was also asked to fill-in at the reception desk, often coming into the office before sunrise and not leaving until well after 5 p.m., he said in the legal filing, which also alleges he was never paid for 40 hours a week, despite working twice as many hours.

“I was told I was working for free and there was nothing I could do,” said Bello.

“When he questioned this exploitation” during a discussion with Marie, “the response was unambiguous: ‘You can resign,’” he said in the litigation.

He would never be able to meet Marie’s expectations because Bello “was not ‘white,’” Marie said, according to the lawsuit.

Bello’s lawyer, Bennitta Joseph of Joseph and Norinsberg, said he’ll be having knee surgery next month.

“At the Civilian Complaint Review Board — the agency sworn to root out abuse — an African immigrant was treated like a slave,” Joseph said. “They exploited him for manual labor, denied him dignity, and discarded his humanity while hiding behind the language of justice. This wasn’t just hypocrisy—it was modern-day servitude, enforced by bureaucrats drunk on power and bigotry, and for this they must be held accountable.”

The CCRB did not return calls seeking comment.