Former NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey is dragging the city to court after it abruptly yanked his taxpayer-funded legal defense in four pending lawsuits against him.
Maddrey’s attorney filed suit against the city Tuesday, arguing the Law Department’s decision to cut off the cash for his legal bills was a bad-faith, budget-slashing “politically motivated absurdity.”
While the city claims that newly “obtained evidence” shows Maddrey does not qualify for the city to pay for his defense, his attorney said they have yet to see the proof.
When asked what the new evidence was, the city’s response was “devoid of any facts upon which your determination was based,” Maddrey attorney, Lambros Y. Lambrou, wrote in an April email filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“It’s our position you are acting in bad faith in making your initial determination and are furthering that bad faith in failing to respond to our request for the facts,” Lambrou wrote to Law Department attorneys. “We look forward to having the court review this politically motivated absurdity.”
The city, under then-Mayor Eric Adams, had agreed to cover his ally Maddrey in four civil suits filed against him in 2024.
The city originally assigned the law firm Wilson Elser to defend Maddrey.
Those suits allege that Maddrey participated in retaliation, workplace discrimination and in covering up sexual harassment claims made against another Adams ally, retired cop Timothy Pearson.
Despite two years of paying for his defense, the city, “in the throes of a multi-billion dollar budget deficit,” suddenly shifted course and said that Maddrey no longer qualified for the free legal aid, the ex-police official’s lawsuit claims.
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new Corporation Counsel Steven Banks — who heads the Law Department — claimed investigators “obtained evidence” that Maddrey violated NYPD rules, and lied during an interview to determine his eligibility for taxpayer coverage, according to a March letter filed with the court.
Under the state’s General Municipal Law, the city can pull the plug on an employee’s defense if they violate agency rules or refuse to cooperate.
But Maddrey said he’s been completely forthright and demands that a judge force the city to show its cards out in the open, according to his suit.
A Law Department spokesperson said: “The Corporation Counsel stands by his decision. We will respond to the filing accordingly.”
