A federal judge in Manhattan has thrown out a sweeping corruption lawsuit brought by former interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon against Mayor Eric Adams and police brass from Adams’ erstwhile administration.
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.
Donlon, a career FBI counterterrorism expert who was brought onboard in September 2024 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 Second Circuit by his lawyer, John Scola.
Dismissing the case in full on the merits, Cote said much of the allegations she’d waded through in the long-winded suit concerned conduct preceding Donlon’s two-month stint as the Big Apple’s top cop, and that other events were half-baked, alleged “in broad brushstrokes without specified dates.”
“The [complaint] spans 243 pages and contains 1,375 paragraphs,” the judge wrote. “At least 55 pages containing almost 300 paragraphs are irrelevant because they describe events that predate Donlon’s appointment as Interim Commissioner and do not involve him.”
Donlon’s suit accusing senior NYPD leadership of engaging in a civil racketeering conspiracy included accusations that senior leadership used his physical office stamp — without his knowledge — to OK promotions of unqualified but politically connected officers.
The suit alleged that the NYPD’s former acting chief of staff and deputy communications chief, Tarik Sheppard, threatened to kill Donlon and leaked his wife’s arrest for a fender bender to the media. Tensions between Donlon and Sheppard rose to a fever pitch during Donlon’s brief tenure, with the pair getting into a public shouting match over a photo-op at the New York City Marathon, The News reported.
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’s office and that Adams’s NYPD brass thwarted internal misconduct investigations.
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.
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.
“In 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,” the judge wrote.
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.
“Such an intent, however, is not per se unlawful and, thus, those allegations do not establish the common unlawful purpose necessary for a RICO enterprise,” Cote’s opinion read.
In a statement, a spokesman for the city Law Department welcomed the decision.
“We are pleased the court agreed there was no legal basis for this (litigation) to continue,” Lucian Chalfen said.
Adams installed Donlon after Caban resigned in disgrace when Caban’s phones were seized in an FBI corruption probe. Donlon’s own home was raided later the same month by federal agents in a probe concerning old documents he might have kept after leaving the FBI. He was never accused of criminal wrongdoing.
The former mayor replaced Donlon with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch two months into the job, demoting him to an assistant deputy mayor at City Hall. He was pushed out of that role in May 2025.
