Federal investigators subpoenaed phones from a group of NYPD lieutenants responsible for fielding complaints about bars in an ever-widening probe into a scheme that allegedly involved the brother of ex-Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned Friday, The Post has learned.
The special operations lieutenants are responsible for identifying and addressing quality-of-life problems in precincts through 311 hotline calls, police sources said.
The lieutenants were allegedly told to take it easy on bars that were clients of James Caban, the former commissioner’s twin and himself a former NYPD officer: “Do not do enforcement, just mediate,” the cops were told, according to a source.
“Noise complaints, crowd complaints, drinking on the sidewalks, people having sex in their vehicles — it’s all behavior that affects the neighborhood,” the source said.
A Brooklyn bar owner told NBC New York Thursday that James Caban tried to “extort” him last summer.
Shamel Kelly, who owns Juice & Moore on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island, told NBC New York he went to City Hall seeking a break from a heavy police presence at his establishment and that a mayoral staffer introduced him to James Caban.
His bar, which served juice during the day and alcohol on weekend nights, had been the subject of dozens of noise complaints, records show.
James Caban told him that he’d take care of his problems with the police if he paid $2,500, Kelly alleged.
“He said that he would mediate my issues with the NYPD,” Kelly told the station.
“He could bring them to me, have a meeting, resolve our issues is what he specifically said he could do, ” Kelly alleged.
“After he said I had to pay him for it, I felt like it was him trying to extort me.”
Kelly said he ultimately refused to move forward with the plan and his bar eventually closed. The mayoral staffer, Ray Martin, was fired Wednesday over his alleged involvement in the scheme.
Both Cabans had their phones taken by the feds along with several members of NYPD brass and the mayor. None of them have been charged with a crime.
Thomas Donlon, a retired FBI official, was sworn in as interim police commissioner Friday.
Edward Caban made history as the first Hispanic to be appointed to the post in 2023 and had vowed to crack down on crime. Major crime, including homicides, declined during his tenure.
