There are second chances, and then there are second chances.
The screw-up son of a retired FDNY chief who kept his EMS job after a scandal involving a noose last year was allowed to resign rather than be fired for drunken driving, the Daily News has learned.
EMT John Thornton resigned in lieu of termination on Dec. 9, meaning he can re-apply to the EMS Academy in one year — giving him a fast track if he wants to become a firefighter. It's the same path Joseph Cassano, the son of former FDNY Commissioner Sal Cassano, used to become a firefighter after he was caught posting racist and anti-Semitic tweets.
Thornton, 23, whose dad is retired FDNY Battalion Chief Terrance Thornton, was busted on Staten Island Aug. 5 on drunken driving charges.
Police pulled him over in his 2008 Honda Ridgeline pickup truck after he veered onto the wrong side of the road on Forest Ave. in West Brighton at about 3:30 a.m., then turned onto a side street and swerved left and right, police said.
With bloodshot eyes and reeking of booze, Thornton told officers, "I'm sorry, I had too much," according to court records.
He pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated on Dec. 6. Sources say the department was planning to fire Thornton after the guilty plea stripped him of his driver's license, but instead, the FDNY allowed him to resign.
The FDNY confirmed that Thornton resigned earlier this month, but department spokesman Frank Dwyer would not comment further.
Thornton first got in trouble in August 2017, when he admitted to hanging a noose in an ambulance at FDNY EMS Station 22 on Staten Island.
He claimed it was meant for one of his buddies — a prank message that if he didn't start training for the upcoming firefighter exam, he would be stuck in EMS forever, sources told the News.
Thornton sought help from his union rep, paramedic Keisha Brockington, who referred him to one of her supervisors.
Weeks later, Brockington, who is black, found a note in her locker that read: "You stupid n----- better watch your back, talking all this crap. You better watch your back when you start your car up. Nothing better than a dead n-----. Trying to get innocent people fired for a funny prank."
Brockington reported it to her two senior officers — who right away called the FDNY's Bureau of Investigation and Trials, but fire department brass didn't call the police. She later went to the cops on her own, and the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task force opened an investigation. Her union's officials blasted the FDNY for not calling police right away.
Thornton and his lawyer did not return messages seeking comment Sunday.
His arrest in August came just two months after Cassano was arrested on charges he defecated on a stranger's lawn furniture after a drunken night in Lake Como, N.J.
The retired commissioner's son quit his EMS job in 2013, after he was caught posting hateful comments against minorities, women and Jews on his personal Twitter account. He was allowed to rejoin the EMS in 2016, and take the promotional exam to become a firefighter — placing him in a less competitive pool of candidates than the general exam. He graduated from the Fire Academy on April 18.
Cassano's one-time EMS partner, Robert Gala — the son of FDNY Assistance Chief Michael Gala — is on modified duty and faces possible termination after a string of arrests for impersonating a police officer, a documented history of blowing off 911 calls, and at least one stint in a drug rehab facility, according to city documents.
None of his arrests ever went anywhere. All his records are sealed, suggesting any charges against him were dropped.
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