FDNY EMT still on the job after slay cover-up

An FDNY EMT lieutenant is still on the job even though she admittedly lied to investigators to cover up her husband’s involvement in an upstate murder for nearly five years, sources say and court records show.

Lt. Elise Hanlon took the stand last month in a high-profile Sullivan County murder trial and finally came clean about her husband Scott Sherwood’s role in the killing of Catherine Novak in 2008.

Yet, even after her shocking admission on the stand, Hanlon is still working as a supervisor at a Far Rockaway EMT station, sources said.

“She had knowledge of a murder and hid it for five years,” said an FDNY source. “Your credibility as a lieutenant should be called into question.”

Hanlon told the jury that she learned soon after the murder that her husband, a former Jamaica Hospital paramedic, acted as the driver for pal and co-worker Paul Novak the night Novak killed his estranged wife, court records show.

She said she kept quiet out of fear and to protect her husband.

“The department is looking into the matter,” said an FDNY spokesman.

Novak strangled his wife in their Narrowsburg home on Dec. 13, 2008, and then set fire to the house to cover his tracks.

Novak collected nearly $ 1 million from an insurance policy and moved to Florida with his kids. He and Sherwood weren’t arrested until September 2012.

Novak was convicted Sept. 27 and faces life without parole when he is sentenced in December. Sherwood pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges but was cleared of a second-degree murder charge after agreeing to testify against Novak. He faces three to 12 years in state prison, court sources said.

Hanlon’s colleagues are calling for the FDNY to discipline the veteran EMT.

“If the story had never come out, she’d still be covering this up,” said the source. “The fire department needs to do something to reprimand her for her lack of action.”

Hanlon refused to comment when reached at her Suffolk County home.

Additional reporting by Frank Rosario

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