Former interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon is threatening a $10 million defamation lawsuit against Mayor Eric Adams and now-retired NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard, claiming the pair coordinated a “public character assassination” in retaliation for his whistleblower lawsuit — which alleges a culture of rampant corruption and racketeering within the department.
Filed July 20, the notice of claim announces Donlon’s intention to sue Adams, Sheppard, and the city, alleging they knowingly made false and damaging public statements about Donlon’s mental fitness in response to his federal civil rights and RICO lawsuit against the city that called the NYPD, under Mayor Adams, “criminal at its core.”
