New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks at his re-election campaign event in New York City on June 26 and on Wednesday was named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit accusing the city’s police department of being a criminal enterprise. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
July 16 (UPI) — Former New York Police Department Commissioner Thomas Donlon calls the NYPD a “corrupt enterprise” that rewards some and punishes others in a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
Donlon, 71, was named the NYPD’s interim commissioner in September 2024 after Edward Caban resigned due to a federal investigation.
He accuses New York City Mayor Adams and highly placed NYPD officials of running a criminal enterprise in the 251-page lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York, as reported by AMNY.
Donlon says Adams ignored his complaints about corrupt activities within the department and sided with Adams’ supporters within the NYPD, which made him the interim commissioner “in name only,” ABC News reported.
Adams’ inner circle of loyalists is who really has authority within the department, according to Donlon.
He exited the NYPD in November and accuses many highly placed department officials of running a scheme to promote politically connected officers who lack merit, obstructing internal oversight and manipulating misconduct investigations.
Donlon says former NYPD spokesman Tarik Sheppard used Donlon’s rubber signature stamp without permission to promote himself to a three-star department chief and threatened, the Daily News reported.
When Donlon confronted Sheppard, he said Sheppard threatened to kill him.
Donlon also accuses former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey of placing spies within Donlon’s office who blocked his attempts to launch probes into police misconduct.
He says Maddrey and Sheppard switched the names of officers whom Donlon chose for promotion and replaced them with their preferred officers without his knowledge and doctored the records to make it appear Donlon had okayed the promotions.
Donlon also accuses several of those named as defendants in his lawsuit of falsely arresting his wife, Deirdre O’Connor, and leaking her arrest to the press for driving with expired car insurance when she was rear-ended by another driver in December.
“This was not a mistake,” Donlon says in the lawsuit. “It was a deliberate abuse of power designed to punish and intimidate Donlon for exposing their misconduct.”
Donlon seeks compensation for emotional and punitive damages and an injunction to end the matter.
A New York City spokesperson called the lawsuit “baseless accusations” and an “attempt to seek compensation” after Donlon was “rightfully removed from the role of interim police commissioner,” AMNY reported.
Adams is seeking re-election as an independent candidate in the Nov. 4 mayoral election in New York City.
