New York City Criminal Justice Worker Arrested On Gun Charges

QUEENS, NY — An off-duty New York City employee has been arrested and she now faces weapons charges, police said. Reagan Stevens, 42, of Mayor Bill de Blasio's office of criminal justice, was arrested around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, police said in a release.

Stevens, who earns $90,000 a year, was immediately suspended without pay pending the outcome of an investigation, spokesman Patrick Gallahue, told the New York Post in a statement on Sunday.

“We take these allegations very seriously,” he said.

According to the city's website, Stevens is the deputy director of youth and strategic initiatives primarily focused on implementing "Raise the Age" legislation. According to the website for The Raise the Age NY Campaign, youths in the state who "make a mistake" will be treated in an age-appropriate manner and be given an opportunity to change their lives.

Stevens was also the deputy director of the Mayor's Action Plan's Behavioral Health and the Criminal Justice System Task Force. Before joining the mayor's criminal justice office, she spent 15 years implementing crime prevention, adolescent diversion programs and incarceration alternatives at the Kings County District Attorney's office.

Stevens, a New York City native, graduated from Binghamton University, her profile said.

Multiple media outlets reported, citing police, that Stevens had been sitting in the backseat of a double-parked car with two other people near the corner of 177th Street and 106th Avenue inJamaica when officers found a loaded 9 mm gun. She was arrested when no one would say who owned the weapon.

The car was sitting just blocks away from the scene of an earlier shooting. Officers had been responding reports that five shots had been fired.

The handgun, which police said was found in a glove compartment, had an eight-round clip. Three rounds remained. Police told WNBC-TV it wasn’t immediately clear if the gun had been recently fired.

Stevens faces charges of 2nd and 3rd degree criminal possession of weapon. It wasn't immediately known if she has an attorney.

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