Thomas Donlon, who served a brief stint as interim head of the New York Police Department during Eric Adams’ tumultuous term, has expanded his legal attack on the former mayor with a defamation lawsuit.
Donlon, who served as interim NYPD commissioner for two months in 2024 following the resignation of Edward Caban, alleges in a suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that Adams and former NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard publicly besmirched Donlon’s character in retaliation of a whistleblower lawsuit he filed against the city.
In July 2025, Donlon, an ex-FBI agent, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act containing explosive allegations that Adams and members of the NYPD brass ran the department like a criminal enterprise.
After Donlon filed the suit, Sheppard said during a live television appearance that Donlon was showing “many signs of cognitive issues” and that the FBI had seized Donlon’s phones. And at a closed-door meeting with civic leaders, Adams said Donlon had recently refused to take part in a mental health check-up, according to court filings.
“The falsity of Defendants’ statements is not a close question. No medical evaluation was ever requested,” Donlon’s defamation lawsuit reads. “No mental-health referral was made. No contemporaneous documentation exists raising concerns about Plaintiff’s cognition or capacity. No such concerns were voiced while Plaintiff served as...
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