Former NYPD commissioner and FBI agent Tom Donlon plans to sue Mayor Eric Adams and his ex-top spokesperson for claiming he was an old man with cognitive issues.
Donlon filed the notice of claim Monday, seeking $10 million in damages for defamation and retaliation, according to his attorney John Scola.
Former NYPD commissioner Tom Donlon plans to sue Mayor Eric Adams over claims he was an old man with cognitive issues. Paul Martinka“This wasn’t spin. It was a deliberate and defamatory attack — weaponizing mental health to silence a whistleblower and deflect from the criminal misconduct Donlon exposed,” Scola said.
The latest filing comes after Donlon, who was interim commish for about two months in fall 2024, filed a blockbuster federal lawsuit last week accusing Adams and his cop cronies of running a massive criminal operation in the NYPD.
In the aftermath, the mayor and his former deputy commissioner of public information railed against the short-lived top cop, calling him a disgruntled employee and attacking his mental acuity.
Just hours after Donlon filed his 251-page federal lawsuit July 16, former top NYPD spokesperson Tarik Sheppard appeared on TV and allegedly defamed Donlon, according to the notice of claim.
Sheppard said on PIX11 that Donlon was “isolated” from the start, and claimed that “his phones were taken by the FBI.”
“That created extreme trust issues, and he was showing many signs of cognitive issues and not making decisions,” the filing quotes Sheppard as saying.
“Every part of that statement is false,” the filing states, adding that the FBI never took Donlon’s phones.
Adams said Thursday than Donlon refused to take a cognitive test and claimed his ex-commish was “mentally not fit.” James KeivomSheppard, who is described as Donlon’s most frequent alleged antagonist in his suit last week, then claimed the interim commish was brought in for “optics.”
Donlon “disappointed the mayor” and he should “get yourself some help and go into retirement in peace,” Sheppard said.
Sheppard doubled down on the allegedly libelous claims the next day, telling amNY about Donlon: “I thought he was suffering some kind of disorder, I honestly did.”
Adams repeated similar claims during a closed-door fundraiser with the Partnership for New York City that day, the filing alleges.
Tarik Sheppard, former NYPD deputy commissioner of public information, was also named in the claim. William FarringtonHe told the group of business leaders that Donlon was “rapidly deteriorating mentally,” and that he’d fired him for refusing to take a “mental health check-up,” according to the notice of claim.
“Just interview him for 15 minutes,” Adams said at a press conference Thursday, cited in the filing. “And then you tell me, what’s your impression? What do you observe?”
Donlon, in an interview with The Post the day after filing his lawsuit, called Adams “morally corrupt” and “feckless,” and slammed his NYPD pals as “clowns.”
Donlon’s filing claims there was no evidence, “medical or otherwise,” that he was “impaired or asked to seek treatment.”
“These rhetorical games—inviting speculation without directly stating falsehoods—were calculated to create doubt while avoiding accountability,” the notice of claim states, calling the speculation “targeted smears designed to destroy a whistleblower’s reputation and silence the truth.”
In response to the new filing, Adams on Monday pointed out that the original complaint contained typos, calling the suit a “rush.”
In a statement, City Hall spokesperson Liz Garcia accused Donlon of trying to “make money off of New Yorkers and tear down the honorable men and women at NYPD.”
Donlon’s filing states that both Adams’ and Sheppard’s behavior — long before his lawsuit was filed — directly contradict their mental acuity claims.
If Adams was so concerned over Donlon’s mental state, then appointing him as Senior Advisor for Public Safety after his stint as NYPD boss “would have been reckless and indefensible,” the notice of claim states.
The filing also cites the infamous confrontation last spring when Sheppard allegedly shouted “I will f—ing kill you” to Donlon.
If Sheppard truly believed Donlon was dotty, “then he threatened to kill a man he believed was mentally impaired,” the filing states.
“If his claims are false, then he is weaponizing fabricated mental health allegations to justify retaliation,” the court document adds.
In addition to $10 million in damages, the notice of claim asks the city to preserve all their communications concerning Donlon between Adams, Sheppard and any other officials on both city-issued and personal devices.
Calls to Sheppard were not immediately returned.
