A federal judge has tossed a high-profile RICO-style civil lawsuit brought by former interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon, ruling that his sweeping complaint failed to show that top city officials were acting together as a criminal enterprise. The decision lands in the middle of a growing pile of lawsuits from ex-NYPD brass accusing allies of Mayor Eric Adams of corruption and revenge-driven personnel moves. Donlon’s lawyer has already signaled he is not done and plans to appeal.
Judge Denise L. Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered all of Donlon’s claims dismissed in an opinion issued Wednesday evening, according to Gothamist. The court concluded that the complaint laid out different motives for different defendants instead of the coordinated, common purpose that a RICO "enterprise" requires. A City Law Department spokesperson told Gothamist the city was "pleased the court agreed there was no legal basis for this case to continue."
What the court said
In throwing out the suit, Cote zeroed in on RICO’s enterprise requirement and the need for a clear, shared objective among the accused officials. Reporting by Law360 notes that the opinion found Donlon’s filings alleged a "variety of motives by separate defendants" instead of a single, unified scheme. Donlon had accused Mayor Eric Adams and several senior NYPD leaders of manipulating promotions, padding pay and retaliating against whistleblowers in a sprawling, multi-count complaint. The court’s reading trims back how far plaintiffs can stretch RICO when they try to use it to litigate alleged municipal corruption.
Case background
The case, Donlon v. City of New York, No. 1:2025cv05831, was filed in July 2025, and the docket reflects a long run of amended complaints and dispositive motions before the matter landed with Judge Cote, according to the court record. Earlier local coverage of Donlon’s initial allegations appears in Hoodline’s July report on his original $10M defamation broadside. Donlon’s lawsuit is part of a cluster of federal complaints that former NYPD officials have filed over the past year.
Why RICO claims are hard to win
Civil RICO requires a plaintiff to allege both a distinct "enterprise" and a pattern of racketeering activity, in other words coordinated illegal conduct by a group acting with a common purpose, according to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. Courts are often quick to dismiss sprawling public sector lawsuits that pin different motives on different actors without clearly pleading the kind of structural coordination RICO demands.
Donlon’s attorney, John Scola, argued in court papers that "Mr. Donlon’s claims are detailed, evidence-based and consistent with facts that have continued to emerge from ongoing federal investigations," and he has said he plans to press the case on appeal, according to Gothamist. With the district court now siding squarely against him, the next move is almost certain to be in the appellate courts, which will be asked to decide whether Donlon’s allegations are enough to breathe life back into a RICO theory in the public sector context.
