Former interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming that New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his top staff at the NYPD are running the department as a criminal racketeering enterprise. 

Donlon filed the lawsuit under the RICO act, and is calling for a federal takeover of the NYPD and the appointment of an independent special monitor to take on corruption within the department. 

The lawsuit centers around allegations of unmerited promotions within the NYPD and an alleged attempt to cover up that process. Donlon claims he was sidelined when he started raising questions about it. 

The mayor's office called the lawsuit "baseless accusations from a disgruntled former employee who ... proved himself to be ineffective." 

"I can't help to believe some of the political aspects of these things that are popping out right now. This is the season for it. This is a baseless lawsuit," Adams said. "The lawyers will figure this out, but it's just a baseless lawsuit of a disgruntled employee, and disgruntled employees will do that from time to time. And let the courts figure it out. I have to keep running the city."

Adams is set to hold a campaign event Thursday with several law enforcement unions and police officers. 

"It's already lowered morale. I mean, me being from the outside as a retired NYPD detective, and I'm hearing this. I can only imagine what they're hearing through the grapevine in the police department, for the active officers," Michael Alcazar of John Jay College of Criminal Justice said. 

Particulars from the lawsuit

The lawsuit alleges the police commissioner's stamp was used without authorization to forge internal documents "to promote unqualified, politically connected officers over those who had earned advancement through merit. This corruption triggered a massive, unlawful transfer of public wealth—millions of dollars in unearned salary increases, overtime eligibility, pension enhancements, and post-retirement benefits." 

Donlon's lawsuit names Adams and several of the NYPD's top brass, including First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella, former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, Chief of Patrol John Chell, then-Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, who's now deputy mayor for public safety, former Deputy Chief of Public Information Tarik Sheppard and Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters Michael Gerber. 

"These individuals exercised unchecked power while Donlon was sidelined and used as a public relations shield," the lawsuit alleges.

"Senior leadership had abandoned lawful governance, and engaged in outright malfeasance by using the NYPD to consolidate political power, obstruct justice, and punish dissent," the lawsuit alleges. "A coordinated criminal conspiracy had taken root at the highest levels of City government—carried out through wire fraud, mail fraud, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and retaliation against whistleblowers. This enterprise—the NYPD—was criminal at its core."

In the lawsuit, Donlon alleges he was commissioner "in name only," claiming his meetings were canceled, schedule altered, communications spied on, and saying he was excluded from operational decisions. 

"With New York City and NYPD under the control of Defendants Adams and Maddrey respectively, promotions were traded for silence. Investigations were obstructed. Dissent was punished. Accountability was buried," the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit alleges Daughtry, Sheppard and Gerber retaliated against Donlon when he started to raise concerns about promotions within the department by arranging for his wife's arrest.

"Mrs. Donlon-O'Connor was handcuffed behind her back, subjected to a full body and personal-effects search at the 17th Precinct, and told ... that she would be transported to Central Booking. This coordinated humiliation was a direct warning: the NYPD Defendants would stop at nothing to silence and personally destroy Donlon, even if it meant violating the constitutional rights of his spouse," the lawsuit alleges.

"Her license came up suspended. That's why she was arrested. I don't even believe the patrol officer at that time knew it was his wife. So these kind of ideas are disappointing for a man that was appointed police commissioner," Sheppard said. "If he thought there was so much corruption, and RICO - stuff that rises to the RICO level under this regime - he certainly didn't hesitate to take another job under this administration. He seemed very happy after left police commissioner and went to work in City Hall." 

Donlon left that subsequent role at City Hall as deputy mayor in May. 

Just last week, four other former high-ranking NYPD members sued the department over accusations of fraudulent promotions. The police union is also fighting to keep 30 officers on the job after the department said they lied about their backgrounds on applications.

Adams responds

"These are baseless accusations from a disgruntled former employee who — when given the opportunity to lead the greatest police department in the world — proved himself to be ineffective. This suit is nothing more than an attempt to seek compensation at the taxpayer's expense after Mr. Donlon was rightfully removed from the role of interim police commissioner. The NYPD is led by the best, brightest, and most honorable professionals in the nation — and their results speak for themselves: crime continues to fall across the city, with shootings at the lowest level in recorded history. We will respond in court, where we are confident these absurd claims will be disproven," the Adams administration responded in a statement. 

"This lawsuit is not a personal grievance; it is a statement against a corrupt system that betrays the public, silences truth, and punishes integrity. The goal is to drive real change, hold the corrupt, deceitful, and abusively powerful accountable, and restore the voice of every honorable officer who has been silenced or denied justice," Donlon said in a statement. 

About Tom Donlon

Donlon became interim police commissioner in September after former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban resigned following a raid by federal agents. Donlon had previously served as New York's Director of the Office of Homeland Security at the FBI's National Threat Center, where he was responsible for the bureau's terror watch list and put together a centralized terror threat database. He also worked with the FBI/NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force. He served until November, when he was succeeded by Jessica Tisch. 

Donlon's appointment came during a period of intense federal scrutiny of top Adams administration officials. Bringing him in from outside of the department was a move to make sure he would not be involved in those investigations. Shortly after he took the post, however, federal agents served search warrants on several of his homes, and Donlon said federal agents "took materials that came into my possession approximately 20 years ago and are unrelated to my work with the New York City Police Department."

Read the lawsuit

• NYPD
• Eric Adams