By Reuven Blau
June 8, 2016
He rose from a poor family in the Bronx to head of one of the city's most powerful law enforcement unions.
Now, Norman Seabrook may find himself behind bars.
The bombastic union president joined the department in 1985 and was soon assigned to drive around then commissioner Richard Koehler.
Ten years later, the outspoken Seabrook was elected president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association after he defeated Stanley Israel in a bitter election.
Seabrook hired Koehler and his partner, Steven Isaacs, to handle legal issues for the union and its approximately 9,000 members.
And he quickly gained a hard-charging reputation as a labor leader who was not afraid to speak his mind and stand up to top jail officials.
In 2013, he ground buses taking Rikers Island inmates to court in an attempt to stop one detainee from testifying against two correction officers. Then Mayor Bloomberg called the move “outrageous” but never moved to punish Seabrook.
His biggest win as a union president came in 1999 when he persuaded a host of elected officials to back a plan to give his members a pension boost known as the Variable Supplements Fund.
The fund — which gives officers up to $12,000 a year — was created in 2000 after then - Gov. Pataki signed the legislation, against strong opposition of former Mayor Giuliani and many city and state unions.
The boost was won outside the normal collective bargaining process.
Seabrook was one of the most prominent union backers of Pataki's re-election bids in 1998 and 2002. He then lobbied hard for the bill, arguing that correction officers should be treated just like cops and firefighters.
But those unions got the perk three decades earlier in return for letting the Police and Fire Pension funds to make stock investments.
Seabrook was a savvy political player.
He was one of the only labor unions to back Bloomberg's first bid for office. In return, he convinced the mayor to keep William Fraser as head of the Correction Department, sources said.
The move blew up when Fraser later resigned in disgrace after he admitted to using correction officers for work by his family home.
Seabrook held several other positions outside of the jail system.
In 2006, Pataki appointed Seabrook to serve on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. Seabrook consistently voted against fare hikes and service cuts despite budget shortfalls. He was also appointed by President George W. Bush to the Presidential Commission on the U.S. Postal Service.
His time at the union helm included several controversies early on.
He was accused of sexual harassment by at least two separate women who worked for the union. One of the women, Sharon Tongue, charged she was canned after backing off his advances, a claim Seabrook has long denied.
The suit was dropped after a confidential settlement was reached in 2001.
Still, as union president Seabrook frequently railed against corruption.
In 1999, after his predecesor died, officials discovered $2 million stashed away in his safe deposit box.
Seabrook asked authorities to investigate.
“If this money is his, then God bless him,” he told the New York Times. “But if in fact this is money that belonged to the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, then I want it back. That is just the bottom line.”
Over the past several years, Seabrook repeatedly warned new recruits to stay out of trouble during outspoken graduation addresses.
He echoed that caution during a roundtable discussion held in January.
"Don't go that extra mile," he said, speaking of his advice to officers. "Because now we got to sit down at a table and come up with a story that doesn't make any sense. So now everybody's getting indicted. I have a problem with that."
Personally, Seabrook has long been married to Susan. The couple has two daughters.
Seabrook, who is one of eight children, has a brother who is serving a life sentence at an upstate prison.
“At the end of the day, he’s in there because he did something he wasn’t supposed to do,” Seabrook said last year. “He got caught up in the three strikes, you’re out. I love my brother. But at the end of the day, he committed a crime, he’s got to do the time.”
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