Four high-ranking former NYPD chiefs are suing Mayor Adams, claiming they were forced to retire from the department after complaining that his “unqualified” friends were being placed in prestigious police positions, sometimes after allegedly bribing their way into the jobs.
The lawsuits, filed late Monday, also name former Police Commissioner Edward Caban and former NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey as defendants, alleging they participated in a conspiracy with the mayor to punish the four senior ex-cops when they spoke out. Two of the suits additionally name ex-Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks and current NYPD Chief of Department John Chell as defendants, alleging they participated in the scheme, too.
Additionally, Caban in one of the lawsuits is alleged to have been “selling promotions” to cops for up to $15,000.
Caban, Maddrey and Banks — all longtime Adams friends who haven’t been charged with crimes — resigned last year after their homes were searched and phones seized in federal corruption investigations separate from the probe that resulted in the mayor’s September 2024 bribery and campaign finance fraud indictment.
The new lawsuits from the ex-chiefs paint a portrait of an NYPD rife with dysfunction and corruption, revisiting a theme that has haunted Adams in his first term as mayor. The suits come just as Adams is gearing up for a difficult bid for a second term, running as an independent in November’s general election amid continued fallout from his indictment.
The four ex-chiefs — James Essig, Matthew Pontillo, Joseph Veneziano and Christopher McCormack — all retired in the second half of 2023 as part of a department shakeup.
In their lawsuits, the ex-chiefs claim they were forced to retire after they raised concern about an allegedly systematic problem within the department whereby allies of Adams were being put into elite NYPD units despite scant experience. They alleged the forced nature of their retirements came in the form of Caban, Maddrey, Banks and Chell — at the “express authority of Mayor Adams” — threatening them with demotions and big pay cuts that left them no choice but the leave the department.
“[Adams] put people in place who, based on their history, didn’t deserve to be there,” Essig, the highest-ranking ex-cop of the quartet, told the Daily News on Tuesday. “He put them in there and then didn’t watch over them. They treated the Police Department like it was their own candy store.”
Their suits also say the ex-chiefs became targets of retaliation from Adams and his top NYPD allies after they raised alarm about some officers unlawfully not turning their body cameras on during arrests. On top of that, they allege they drew the ire of the mayor’s inner circle when they criticized some of the Adams administration’s signature public safety initiatives, including the resurrection of a controversial policy allowing cops to pursue high-speed chases of suspects accused of low-level offenses like traffic infractions.
“The overarching theme is whistleblower retaliation,” said Sarena Townsend, an attorney representing all four ex-chiefs, whose suits are each asking for at least $5 million in punitive damages. “These are people who were in the department for 30 to 40 years who knew what was right and wrong. What Adams and his group wanted to do was cut corners, do things against policy, do things that were unconstitutional.”
Essig’s suit contained the most explosive claim, alleging Caban took bribes from Adams allies and friends in exchange for promoting them to prestigious police posts, an allegation that’s apparently still under investigation by the feds.
In an interview with The News, Essig said that the feds, in addition to raiding the homes of Caban and Maddrey last year, subpoenaed them and the department for financial records and NYPD promotion and assignment lists, indicating they were already probing the claims at the heart of the new suits.
Speaking to the allegations about inappropriate hiring and promotions, Essig, a 41-year NYPD veteran who retired as chief of detectives, described a landscape under Caban in which unqualified cops with red flags in their records were being put in sensitive joint task forces with the feds.
“Our federal counterparts were coming to us, and saying, ‘He’s not qualified,’” Essig said. “They’d have recent domestics or DWI arrests. Some were compromised with affiliations with the underworld. The feds were not going to let them in the building.
“It was the same thing with promotions — we had a system in place which was a supervisor would recommend you,” he continued. “It would be vetted. And we had a list that would be used — we called it the ‘good list.’ That was ignored, and they were promoting people who were not qualified, not vetted and not on the list.”
Adams would not answer questions about the new lawsuits at an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoon.
Touting that some crime rates have declined under Adams’ tenure, his spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said later in the day: “The Adams administration holds all city employees — including leadership at the NYPD — to the highest standards … We will review the lawsuits.”
Essig alleges in his suit that the practice of sketchy promotions first started around January 2023, when he noticed that Maddrey, a longtime friend to Adams who resigned amid a sex scandal last year, was trying to get friends placed into senior units within the department’s Criminal Task Force Division. Many of the Maddrey pals getting the top jobs were “unqualified and/or incompetent,” according to Essig’s suit.
Essig allegedly went to Caban, at the time the NYPD’s first deputy commissioner, to complain about Maddrey’s actions.
“We can’t be doing this,” Essig told Caban, according to the suit.
But according to the suit, Caban rejected his complaint and shot back: “Do you have a problem with this?!”
Essig alleges Caban ignored the complaint because he was engaged in a similar practice, having “hand-picked friends and cronies” for discretionary promotions that bypassed official procedures.
In his bombshell claim, Essig alleges, citing “information and belief,” that Caban engaged in that practice because he was “selling promotions” to cops for “up to $15,000” a pop. Essig’s suit, also citing “information and belief,” claims Caban “is currently under federal investigation for selling discretionary promotions.”
Caban’s lawyers, Russell Capone and Rebekah Donaleski, pushed back, saying in a statement, “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. Former Commissioner Caban will vigorously defend against these claims and is evaluating all available legal options in response.”
Lawyers for Maddrey and Banks didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
Banks and Caban resigned last fall after their homes were searched and phones seized in federal corruption investigations scrutinizing allegations of kickbacks on city contracts, suspected wrongdoing in the NYPD’s nightlife enforcement units and other issues. Neither of the men have been charged with wrongdoing.
Maddrey stepped down in December in the wake of also coming under federal investigation over allegations he forced a subordinate to perform sex acts on him in exchange for overtime pay. He hasn’t been criminally charged, either.
Chell, who was chief of patrol at the time of the wrongdoing alleged in the new lawsuits, took over as chief of department after Maddrey’s resignation.
Originally Published: July 8, 2025 at 12:12 PM EDT
