Ex-NYPD commissioner sues NYC mayor, alleging he ran police department as a ‘criminal enterprise’

NEW YORK (AP) – A former New York City interim police commissioner filed a civil racketeering lawsuit Wednesday against his one-time boss, Mayor Eric Adams, and other top department officials, alleging they showered loyalists with unearned promotions, buried allegations of misconduct and gratuitously punished whistleblowers.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court, the ex-commissioner, Thomas Donlon, accused Adams and his inner circle of operating the nation’s largest police department as a “criminal enterprise.”

Their alleged corruption triggered a “massive, unlawful transfer of public wealth,” the suit states, through unearned salary increases, overtime payments, pension enhancement and other benefits.

At times, top officials forged internal documents to promote politically connected officers or those whose silence they were seeking, according to the lawsuit.

With Adams’ approval, his cadre of hand-picked police leaders also sought to obstruct internal investigations, while targeting dissenters with leaks through the press, the suit alleges.

Inquiries to the New York City Police Department and City Hall were not immediately returned.

“This lawsuit is not a personal grievance,” Donlon said in a statement. “It is a statement against a corrupt system that betrays the public, silences truth, and punishes integrity.”

Donlon, a career FBI official who had not previously worked in the NYPD, was brought in as interim commissioner last September to stabilize a department shaken by federal investigations.

His predecessor, Edward Caban, stepped down after federal authorities seized his electronic devices as part of an investigation that also involved his brother, a former police officer, along with several other high-ranking police officials. Caban has denied wrongdoing and not been criminally charged.

Donlon had spent decades working on terrorism cases, including the investigation into the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and was a top counterterrorism official for the FBI’s New York office. He also led New York state’s Office of Homeland Security before going into the private sector security industry.

But about a week into his tenure, federal authorities searched Donlon’s homes and seized decades old materials that he said at the time were unrelated to his work with the NYPD.

Donlon lasted about two months on the job before current police Commissioner Jessica Tisch took over, pledging to restore trust to the department.

But as he seeks reelection, Adams faces renewed scrutiny over his management of the police force.

Last week, four other former high-ranking New York City police officials filed separate lawsuits against Adams and his top deputies, alleging a culture of rampant corruption and bribes that preceded Donlon’s appointment.

In response to that suit, a spokesperson for Adams said the administration “holds all city employees – including leadership at the NYPD – to the highest standards.”