{"id":330728,"date":"2026-08-27T02:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T02:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330728\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T02:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T02:16:09","slug":"nyc-bar-owner-files-6m-suit-against-city-ex-nypd-brass-over-adams-era-shakedown-like-mobsters-in-a-bad-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330728\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC bar owner files $6M suit against city, ex-NYPD brass over Adams-era shakedown: ‘Like mobsters in a bad movie’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Brooklyn bar owner claims the Eric Adams administration extorted and bullied his business after refusing a shakedown by the police commish\u2019s brother<\/a> \u2014 forcing him to shutter his juice spot barely a year after opening, according to a new $6 million lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Shamel Kelly, owner of the former Coney Island bar Juice & Moore, says cops from the 60th Precinct relentlessly tormented him after opening in 2022, including conducting illegal raids over minor noise complaints \u2014 and slapping him with dozens of summonses that were later tossed, court papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brooklyn bar owner Shamel Kelly, who has accused the twin brother of ousted NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban of trying to \u201cextort\u201d him, said he feels \u201cvindicated\u201d by a widening\u00a0probe into City Hall. New York Post<\/p>\n

That shakedown helped lead to a sweeping federal corruption probe into aides of former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 aides as well as top NYPD brass \u2014 including ousted top cop Edward Caban and his brother<\/a>, James, who the suit claims demanded $2,500 in exchange for \u201cresolving\u201d Kelly\u2019s issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShamel Kelly was like any one of us simply trying to make a living and the very officers and officials who were supposed to be protecting him extorted him and ran him out of business like they were mobsters in a bad movie,\u201d his attorney Harry Daniels said.<\/p>\n

The city, Caban brothers and dozens of NYPD officers are named as defendants in the suit.<\/p>\n

Kelly said he was subjected to a harassment and extortion scheme when his bar opened in 2022, including one incident where more than 40 cops showed up and issued 26 violations to his bar.<\/p>\n

Seeking help, mayoral staffer Ray Martin introduced Kelly to James Caban, the commissioner\u2019s twin brother, who told him his issues could be taken care of for $2,500 \u2014 but Kelly refused.<\/p>\n

James warned Kelly \u201cthat he would not remain open much longer,\u201d the lawsuit claims.<\/p>\n

Since he \u201crefused to pay Mr. Caban, the 60th Precinct\u2019s presence and harassment intensified significantly,\u201d and led to Kelly\u2019s business closing in November 2023, court papers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

James Caban, the twin brother of ousted NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban. james.caban.7\/facebook<\/p>\n

A pedestrian walks past Kelly\u2019s closed Juice and Moore Bar on Mermaid Avenue in Brooklyn in 2024. Dorian Geiger\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Cops allegedly put on a huge show of force, with \u201cmore than ten police vehicles and dozens of officers\u201d showing up outside his shop \u201con several occasions,\u201d according to the filing. <\/p>\n

Kelly claims that prior to closing shop for good, he encountered at least 60 police visits that year.<\/p>\n

The broken-hearted bar owner told The Post in 2024 that he felt \u201cvindicated\u201d when the Caban brothers were raided by the feds<\/a> \u2014 and now his $6 million suit claims Edward Caban also used his position to override official complaints Kelly made about police abuse.<\/p>\n

Martin was fired after NBC New York first broke Kelly\u2019s ordeal<\/a>, and attorneys for James Caban denied any wrongdoing at the time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s time for this city to decide,\u201d said another Kelly attorney, Bernarda Villalona. <\/p>\n

\u201cAre you going to protect corrupt officials or hard working folks like Shamel Kelly?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brooklyn bar owner claims the Eric Adams administration extorted and bullied his business after refusing a shakedown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11827,81,34172,24224,2850,57,9,56,63,65,64,103,58],"class_list":["post-330728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-brooklyn-federal-court","tag-eric-adams","tag-extortion","tag-fbi-investigations","tag-lawsuits","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nypd","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330728","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=330728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}