Mayor and Police Chiefs Let Corruption Fester at N.Y.P.D., Suits Charge

New York Times

5 days ago

Four former high-ranking police officers are suing Mayor Eric Adams of New York, accusing him of enabling corruption in the Police Department, an agency where they said anyone who spoke out faced retaliation and humiliation.
The separate lawsuits filed on Monday in New York Supreme Court come as Mr. Adams, a former police captain, is running for re-election and using falling crime numbers to bolster his campaign. But the allegations from the former officers, who each spent decades in the department and helped lead bureaus like Internal Affairs and Professional Standards, could revive accusations that he presided over a law enforcement agency where chaos and cronyism reigned.
One of the former officers, James Essig, who served more than 40 years, was chief of detectives until August 2023. He said in the suit that Edward Caban, the commissioner at the time, had forced him to resign after he objected to the promotions of unqualified officers to elite detective roles and specialized units.
Mr. Essig's lawsuit, which names Mr. Caban, Mr. Adams and Jeffrey Maddrey, the former chief of department, accused Mr. Caban of selling promotions in exchange for $15,000.
Instead of relying on a list of candidates recommended by supervisors, Mr. Caban and Mr. Maddrey often picked 'friends and cronies' of theirs and Mr. Adams, according to the suit.
In an interview, Mr. Essig, 63, said he wanted 'accountability' for former leaders whose decisions 'killed morale' and hurt the careers of dozens of police officers who were forced out or left the department because they were troubled about its direction.
The lawsuits are about exposing the wrongdoing of 'people who were in there who didn't do the right thing,' he said. 'They used the Police Department as their own little playground.'
Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokeswoman for Mr. Adams, said the administration would review the lawsuits.
'The Adams administration holds all city employees — including leadership at the N.Y.P.D. — to the highest standards,' she said in a statement. 'Our work at the department speaks for itself: Crime continues to topple month after month both above and below ground.'
'That is no coincidence,' Ms. Mamelak Altus added. 'It's thanks to the Adams administration's laser focus on public safety.'
The Police Department declined to comment.
Lawyers for Mr. Caban, who resigned amid a federal probe into several members of the Adams administration, said he would 'vigorously defend' himself.
'There is no merit to the allegations raised in these complaints, including the unsupported and reckless suggestion that former Commissioner Caban accepted anything of value in connection with promotions,' said his lawyers, Russell Capone and Rebekah Donaleski.
Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer for Philip Banks III, the former deputy mayor for public safety who is named as a co-defendant in one of the lawsuits, said in a statement that his client had done 'absolutely nothing wrong.'
Mr. Maddrey's lawyer, Lambros Lambrou, said he had not seen the lawsuit yet.
Mr. Maddrey resigned in December after he was accused by a lieutenant of coercing her into sex in exchange for overtime opportunities. Mr. Maddrey, who has denied the allegations, is also under federal investigation.
Last November, Mayor Adams appointed Jessica Tisch as police commissioner and she has since overhauled the executive staff, replacing the head of internal affairs and other key positions as she works to bring stability back to the department. Ms. Tisch has also restored the department's longstanding promotion system, in which candidates are recommended and vetted by supervisors, according to several people familiar with the changes.
Since then, Mr. Adams has stood alongside Ms. Tisch at news conferences where he has touted the drop in crime. However, the complaints filed on Monday threaten to cast a shadow on those achievements, recalling the scandals that forced out Mr. Caban and Mr. Maddrey, who were allies of the mayor.
Mr. Adams promoted Mr. Caban to commissioner in July 2023, following the abrupt resignation of Keechant Sewell, who had left after only 18 months, frustrated over her inability to run the department as she saw fit. She felt stymied by members of the Adams administration and could not make discretionary promotions even at the lower levels of the agency without getting clearance from City Hall, according to people close to her.
Mr. Caban himself resigned in September 2024 after federal agents seized his phone as part of a criminal investigation into the administration. Federal authorities were investigating Mr. Caban and his twin brother, a former police officer who was fired from the department in 2001 and had been working in nightclub security. The investigation involved possible payments made in exchange for favors to nightclubs. The authorities also sought records of promotions and transfers.
The other former officers suing the city and the Police Department include: Christopher McCormack, who was the assistant chief of the Criminal Task Force Division; Matthew Pontillo, the chief of professional standards; and Joseph Veneziano, who was once second in command at the Internal Affairs Bureau. Each had a rank of either two or three stars and had spent 30 to 40 years in the department.
The lawyer representing all the officers, Sarena Townsend, described them as 'high-level, integrity-driven professionals' who had been replaced with friends of the mayor or his allies in the department.
In his lawsuit, Mr. Pontillo said he had been forced out after he criticized Mr. Maddrey for his support of 'unrestricted' high-speed pursuits and after he issued an audit that said officers from the Community Response Team, a unit created by John Chell, then the chief of patrol, had been turning off their body-worn cameras during stops. Their behavior 'indicated a pattern of unconstitutional stops and searches that the C.R.T. officers were attempting to hide,' according to Mr. Pontillo's complaint.
Chief Chell, whom Commissioner Tisch promoted to chief of department, is named in Mr. Pontillo's lawsuit. He did not respond to a message for comment.
In his complaint, Mr. Veneziano said that Mr. Maddrey and Mr. Caban had retaliated after Mr. Veneziano disciplined an inspector who was friends with Mr. Maddrey. The inspector, who was not named, had claimed to be working when he was not, according to the suit. In 2021, the inspector lost 60 vacation days and was forced to retire, but when Mr. Maddrey was promoted to chief of the department a year later, he reinstated the inspector and later promoted him to deputy chief in his office.
Mr. Veneziano said he was later transferred to the 'inferior' Transit Bureau, where he was given an office far from other executives in the unit and ostracized from high-level meetings. He resigned in November 2023.
In his complaint, Mr. McCormack said that as commander of the Criminal Task Force Division he was supposed to act as a 'gatekeeper' for personnel. But when he rejected candidates pushed by Mr. Maddrey, he was given a humiliating choice: resign or face demotion to captain.
After Mr. McCormack left, Mr. Maddrey appointed more than 30 unqualified or incompetent people to the division, according to the suit.
One officer who remained in an elite unit was a candidate pushed by Mr. Banks.
The officer had wanted to join a division charged with investigating money laundering, known as the El Dorado unit. The officer had no experience in accounting or finances, like other members of the unit, and also had a criminal history.
According to the suit, the candidate wanted to be part of the unit because the name 'sounded cool.'
Maia Coleman contributed reporting.