{"id":139373,"date":"2026-02-19T23:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/139373\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T23:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:03:12","slug":"judge-tosses-ex-nypd-commissioner-donlons-corruption-suit-vs-eric-adams-top-police-brass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/139373\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge tosses ex-NYPD Commissioner Donlon\u2019s corruption suit vs. Eric Adams, top police brass"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge in Manhattan has thrown out a sweeping corruption lawsuit<\/a> brought by former interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon against Mayor Eric Adams and police brass from Adams\u2019 erstwhile administration.<\/p>\n

In a 40-page decision issued Wednesday, Manhattan Federal Judge Denise Cote granted a defense motion to dismiss the case that Donlon, 72, filed in July. Cote found that the $10 million suit accusing the Adams administration of operating like the mob failed to sufficiently allege violations of federal law and meet other legal requirements.<\/p>\n

Donlon, a career FBI counterterrorism expert who was brought onboard in September 2024<\/a> after the high-profile resignation of Police Commissioner Edward Caban, indicated on Thursday he would fight the decision in a notice of appeal filed in the 2nd Circuit by his lawyer, John Scola.<\/p>\n

Dismissing the case in full on the merits, Cote said much of the allegations she\u2019d waded through in the long-winded suit concerned conduct preceding Donlon\u2019s two-month stint as the Big Apple\u2019s top cop, and that other events were half-baked, alleged \u201cin broad brushstrokes without specified dates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [complaint] spans 243 pages and contains 1,375 paragraphs,\u201d the judge wrote. \u201cAt least 55 pages containing almost 300 paragraphs are irrelevant because they describe events that predate Donlon\u2019s appointment as Interim commissioner and do not involve him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TarikTarik Sheppard speaks during a crime briefing press conference on Wednesday, April 3, 2024, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Donlon\u2019s suit accusing senior NYPD leadership of engaging in a civil racketeering conspiracy included accusations that senior leadership used his physical office stamp \u2014 without his knowledge \u2014 to OK promotions of unqualified but politically connected officers.<\/p>\n

The suit alleged that the NYPD\u2019s former acting chief of staff and deputy communications chief, Tarik Sheppard, threatened to kill Donlon and leaked his wife\u2019s arrest for a fender bender to the media. Tensions between Donlon and Sheppard rose to a fever pitch during Donlon\u2019s brief tenure, with the pair getting into a public shouting match over a photo op at the New York City Marathon, The News reported.<\/p>\n

The suit, which sought damages and the installation of a federal monitor at the NYPD, also alleged that ousted former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey installed spies in Donlon\u2019s office and that Adams\u2019 NYPD brass thwarted internal misconduct investigations.<\/p>\n

Former Chief of Department John Chell, First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella, and Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry were also named as defendants, along with other former officials.<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell, left, and Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry are pictured during a press conference at NYPD headquarters, Tuesday October 24, 2023. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Cote said the suit failed to make the case that police brass had acted with a common purpose in the alleged conspiracy to consolidate power, obstruct justice and punish dissent, as required for members of a RICO enterprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, the [complaint] repeatedly alleges that the individual defendants had different motivations that shaped their interactions with Donlon and drove their alleged misconduct, rather than a single desire to further their criminal enterprise or otherwise commit a crime,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

Cote said the only two defendants accused by Donlon of sharing motivations to take him down were Daughtry and Sheppard, who Donlon alleged were driven by envy and a desire to curry favor with the mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch an intent, however, is not per se unlawful and, thus, those allegations do not establish the common unlawful purpose necessary for a RICO enterprise,\u201d Cote\u2019s opinion read.<\/p>\n

\"FormerNYPD Commissioner Thomas Donlon is pictured at the NYPD’s 17th Precinct stationhouse in Manhattan on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesman for the city Law Department welcomed the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased the court agreed there was no legal basis for this [litigation] to continue,\u201d Lucian Chalfen said.<\/p>\n

Adams installed Donlon after Caban resigned in disgrace<\/a> when Caban\u2019s phones were seized in an FBI corruption probe. Donlon\u2019s own home was raided later the same month<\/a> by federal agents in a probe concerning old documents he might have kept after leaving the FBI. He was never accused of criminal wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

The former mayor replaced Donlon with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch two months into the job<\/a>, demoting him to an assistant deputy mayor at City Hall. He was pushed out of that role<\/a> in May 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge in Manhattan has thrown out a sweeping corruption lawsuit brought by former interim NYPD Commissioner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[85,267,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-139373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}