Four ex-NYPD chiefs file lawsuit against NYC, alleging they were forced out of the department

A group of former high-ranking NYPD chiefs said they were forced out of their jobs after raising concerns that unqualified officers connected to then-Police Commissioner Edward Caban were being promoted to sensitive positions in the department, four lawsuits filed recently show.

Former chief of detectives, James Essig, a 40-year police veteran, charged in his suit that Caban was selling promotions for up to $15,000, prompting a federal investigation.

Caban, who held the top NYPD position for a little over a year, resigned in September 2024 after news broke that FBI agents had seized his cellphones.

Joseph Veneziano, a two-star chief who headed the Transit Bureau, Matthew Pontillo, a three-star chief who ran the Professional Standards Bureau and former two-star chief Christopher McCormack, who was in charge of the Criminal Task Force Bureau, along with Essig, filed lawsuits in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, charging that Caban, Mayor Eric Adams and ex-Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey forced them out of the department in violation of Civil Service laws. 

"The mayor of New York City is supposed to be a public servant," Sarena Townsend, the attorney for the chiefs said in an emailed statement. "But Mayor Adams has used his position as a racket, to benefit himself and his close friends to the detriment of New Yorkers. And when my clients — decorated, high-ranking leaders of the NYPD — tried to stop him and his cronies from committing illegal or unethical acts within the Department, they got pushed out in retaliation."

The mayor and the NYPD did not respond to requests for comment.

"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," Caban's lawyers, Russell Capone and Rebekah Donaleski, told The New York Times. 

Calls to Maddrey representatives were not returned.

Philip Banks III, the former deputy mayor for public safety, and current Chief of Department John Chell were also named in the suits.

Essig charged that the promotion process changed in November 2022, a year after Adams took office when "promotions and transfers were disproportionately given to friends and cronies."

When Essig raised alarms about the staff changes, he said in the suit that Caban and Maddrey sought to oust him. However, due to Civil Service rules, they could not fire him outright and instead threatened to demote him by five ranks, a pay cut of $40,000 to $50,000, according to the suit. To avoid the financial hit, Essig resigned in September 2023, two years before his intended retirement date.

Similarly, Pontillo raised public safety concerns about changes in policy implemented by Chell regarding extending hazardous police pursuits, he said in court papers. Pontillo also said that he became aware that officers were being encouraged not to turn on their body-worn cameras unless they saw evidence of a crime, according to the suit.

McCormack charged that Banks sought to place a friend without experience in the financial crimes unit called "El Dorado" because the name "sounded cool."

Veneziano said that he was targeted by the police brass after he cooperated with the Brooklyn district attorney regarding a separate investigation.

Like Essig, Pontillo and McCormack, the former commissioner and chief threatened a costly demotion and forced him to resign from the department, the lawsuit states.

The NYPD under Adams has been marked by turmoil. The mayor’s first commissioner, Keechant Sewell, a former Nassau County police chief of detectives, resigned a year and a half into her appointment without providing a reason. She was replaced by Caban, who stepped aside amid rumors of a federal probe. Former FBI agent Thomas Donlon became the third commissioner in mid-September 2024 only to resign at the end of November of that year after federal agents seized materials from his home.

"What a mess," said former NYPD Det. Joseph Giacalone, now an adjunct professor at Penn State University. "Of course, these things flare up over time. ... Nepotism and cronyism have always been in the police department, but these lawsuits put it at a different level."