Thread by @BillDedman

One of the Long Island real estate agents who appeared prominently in our @Newsday team's investigation of racial steering, Long Island Divided, has won the right to keep her real estate license. 1/

The agent formerly with Keller Williams, Le-Ann Vicquery, won the decision on August 30, according to an announcement by her attorney. Vicquery is the agent in our video who warned the White tester, but not the Black tester, about gang activity in Brentwood. 2/

Although both testers had centered their search in Brentwood, Vicquery provided only the Black tester listings in Brentwood, while sending the white tester no listings in Brentwood, directing him to a whiter area far outside of Brentwood. 3/

The administrative law judge described the investigator for the New York Department of State as "not credible" and having done very little investigating. The investigator interviewed no one except the Realtor, did not interview the testers, and did not have copies of listings. 4/

Therefore, the the hearing examiner disregarded Newsday's videos and description of the listings provided to both the Black and White testers. Without testimony to back them up, the articles themselves were deemed "not sufficiently reliable." 5/

Vicquery's attorney, E. Christopher Murray of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, said, "when all the actual evidence came out in a hearing, it was clear that Ms. Vicquery did not engage in any discriminatory conduct." 6/

The attorney continued, "Ms. Vicquery had her life turned upside down and lost her job because of the Newsday report." 7/

The firm quotes Vicquery: "I did not engage in discriminatory conduct, and I am glad I had an opportunity to present evidence at a hearing showing that I did nothing wrong." 8/

The firm says, "Ms. Vicquery added that she hopes to continue in her career as a real estate agent and to put this whole 'horrible' situation behind her." 9/

Vicquery testified that she had warned only the White tester about gang activity because she had just seen a report on TV, and she did not warn the Black tester because she had not heard from him for about a month and no longer considered him a client. 10/

Read the decision at rmfpc.com/wp-content/upl…. 11/

The attorney statement is at rmfpc.com/charges-dismis…. 12/

At a public hearing in July of the N.Y. Real Estate Board, officials said 24 hearings prompted by the Newsday investigation have been concluded or scheduled or await scheduling; 3 more cases resulted in warnings instead of disciplinary action; and 5 remain under review. 13/

Long Island Business News reports on the Vicquery decision, including the implication for other cases of the state doing so little investigating based on Newsday's report, at libn.com/2021/09/02/sta…. 14/

The full report on Long Island Divided from Newsday, including complete video of the test of agent Vicquery at Keller Williams, is at newsday.com/divided. No subscription required to read all the articles and view the 40-minute documentary film. #lidivded 15/

Fair housing experts described Vicquery's test as "a textbook example of racial steering" and "a classic example of modern steering – nobody uses racial epithets anymore. The community that the black tester is being shown is different from the white tester’s area." 16/

The Newsday article focusing on Vicquery's test is at projects.newsday.com/long-island/re…. It's test No. 96. #fairhousing 17/