FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bronx Supreme Court lawsuit alleges Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch and Chief of Staff Ryan Merola dismantled Brian K. Adams’s Deputy Chief-equivalent community-relations role, manufactured misconduct, and treated favored white and Jewish employees accused of far more serious taxpayer-resource abuse with extraordinary leniency.

New York, New York — July 6, 2026 — Eric Sanders, Esq., of The Sanders Firm, P.C. filed a human-rights employment lawsuit in Bronx County Supreme Court on behalf of former NYPD civilian executive Brian K. Adams against the City of New York, Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch, Chief of Staff Ryan Merola, NYPD executives Edward A. Thompson, Joseph A. DiBartolomeo, Richard S. Taylor, Kenneth J. Harsch, Jane Doe 1, and Matthew Miller.

The lawsuit alleges race discrimination, hostile work environment, retaliation, and aiding-and-abetting violations under the New York State Human Rights Law and the New York City Human Rights Law.

Adams is Black. He was hired by the NYPD on August 13, 2018, during the administration of former Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill, as Citywide Community Coordinator. According to the complaint, Adams worked without incident through the administrations of Commissioners O’Neill, Dermot F. Shea, Keechant L. Sewell, Edward A. Caban, and Thomas G. Donlon.

For years, the NYPD relied on Adams’s credibility, relationships, and access to communities of color, primarily Black and Hispanic communities, as well as youth organizations, violence-interruption groups, elected officials, advocacy groups, families of crime victims, NYPD Cadets, NYPD Explorers, and other stakeholders whose relationships with the NYPD were historically strained or sensitive.

The complaint alleges that Adams’s work was not ceremonial. He was used by the Department during some of the NYPD’s most sensitive police-community moments, including the Department trial of Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo, community tensions involving the family of Eric Garner, the George Floyd unrest, police-reform outreach, quality-of-life operations, community-unrest responses, and police-involved incidents across the City.

Adams was later elevated into an executive-level Community Affairs Bureau position equivalent to a Deputy Chief. He was assigned a Department vehicle, placed in command of the Community Ambassador Unit, and entrusted with citywide responsibilities requiring discretion, mobility, executive access, and Department support.

The lawsuit alleges that changed after Jessica S. Tisch became Police Commissioner.

According to the complaint, Tisch’s administration began dismantling, restricting, disapproving, or devaluing the Black and Hispanic community-centered programs, relationships, and operational practices Adams had built and maintained for years. Those programs included the New Year’s Eve Youth Celebration created in partnership with the Department of Education, a Thanksgiving Day Parade appreciation event for families of crime victims, community programming involving NYPD Cadets and Explorers, New York Jets community-appreciation events, Barclays Center relationship-building opportunities, CMS and violence-interruption work, DYCD-related work, and Adams’s broader role as a trusted Department point person in sensitive community-facing matters.

The complaint alleges that Tisch favored politically centrist programs, affluent communities, Jewish communities, internally favored employees, and Tisch-aligned constituencies while restricting Adams’s work with Black, Hispanic, youth, Cadet, Explorer, violence-interruption, and community-based stakeholders.

The lawsuit also alleges that Tisch and Merola selectively dismantled Adams’s Deputy Chief-equivalent executive authority. According to the complaint, Adams’s operator practices were restricted, his vehicle-category request was left unresolved, his staffing requests were denied, his ability to work safely in the field was impaired, and he was left without support during community-facing assignments where other executives, including lower-ranked executives, allegedly had operators assigned.

After Adams was transferred back to Community Affairs, the complaint alleges he was not properly introduced as an executive, was denied the option to select a home command, was forced to report to 90 Church Street despite parking issues, was placed or attempted to be placed under favored internal actors, had subordinates moved without notice, and was instructed to pause working with CMS groups until approval was given by the Police Commissioner.

The complaint further alleges that Merola removed Adams from the executive-floor access list at One Police Plaza, despite Adams having held that access since his date of hire in 2018. Adams also alleges that his Executive Garage parking spot was removed by the Police Commissioner’s Office, his PFD practices were later challenged, and the Department created ambiguity around vehicle, reporting-location, parking, and operator practices before using that ambiguity against him.

The lawsuit alleges that Tisch and Merola manufactured misconduct by converting ordinary, authorized, tolerated, correctable, or previously accepted executive practices into a termination predicate.

The complaint alleges that Internal Affairs Bureau actors, including Thompson, DiBartolomeo, Harsch, Jane Doe 1, and Miller, acted as proxies or implementing actors for Tisch and Merola. Adams alleges that, in June 2026, he was questioned by Internal Affairs Bureau Group No. 1 concerning approximately eleven occasions involving PFD or EOT at the 105 Annex, where his Department vehicle was parked, and alleged vehicle use in Nassau County when he was not on the clock.

Adams alleges he explained that he had Department-related relationships in Nassau County, including Explorer-related relationships, and that Chief John M. Chell had previously authorized his Department vehicle use outside New York City limits when necessary for his Department responsibilities.

On June 24, 2026, approximately two weeks after the Internal Affairs Bureau interview, Adams was terminated. According to the complaint, when Adams asked why he was being terminated, he was told that no reason had been provided.

The next day, June 25, 2026, information concerning Adams’s termination was published publicly in a manner that Adams alleges damaged his credibility, reputation, community standing, and future employment prospects.

The lawsuit alleges disparate treatment and pretext. Adams alleges that favored white and Jewish employees were treated with “kid gloves” even when accused of far more serious misconduct involving time theft, payroll misconduct, private-business conflicts, and alleged theft of taxpayer resources.

The complaint identifies several comparators, including Deputy Chief Richard S. Taylor, a Jewish male NYPD executive, who was reportedly accused of time theft and payroll misconduct involving approximately 172 paid hours allegedly not worked during 2024 and 2025, but allegedly resolved the matter through a negotiated disciplinary disposition involving repayment of approximately $20,000, forfeiture or docking of time or pay, transfer, and dismissal probation, without criminal prosecution.

The complaint also identifies David Tzall, a white male NYPD employee, and Matthew J. Graziano, a white male NYPD employee, who were allegedly accused of substantial time-theft misconduct involving private psychology practice work while assigned to the NYPD Health and Wellness Division. The complaint alleges Tzall’s matter involved approximately 800 hours, Graziano’s matter involved approximately 1,000 hours, and neither was criminally prosecuted.

By contrast, Adams alleges he was terminated over vehicle, PFD, EOT, and executive-resource issues that were manufactured into misconduct after defendants stripped him of authority, restricted his operational tools, and created ambiguity around the very practices later used against him.

“This case is about what happens when the NYPD uses a Black executive’s credibility to reach Black and Hispanic communities, then discards him when a new administration decides those relationships no longer fit its preferred power structure,” said Eric Sanders, owner and president of The Sanders Firm, P.C. “Brian Adams was not accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer resources. He was not accused of running a private business on NYPD time. Yet the Department treated him as disposable while favored employees accused of far more serious conduct were protected, negotiated out, or allowed to resign.”

Sanders continued: “The complaint alleges manufactured misconduct. It alleges selective enforcement. It alleges that Commissioner Tisch and Ryan Merola dismantled Adams’s executive authority, stripped his access and support, then used Internal Affairs to create the appearance of wrongdoing. That is not equal enforcement. That is discriminatory executive management dressed up as discipline.”

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages against the individual defendants where permitted by law, declaratory relief, equitable relief, attorneys’ fees, costs, interest, and all other relief available under the New York State Human Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, and applicable New York law.

About The Sanders Firm, P.C.

The Sanders Firm, P.C. is a New York-based law firm focused on civil rights, immigration, employment discrimination, police misconduct, and other high-stakes matters. Its founder and president, Eric Sanders, Esq., is a retired NYPD officer who brings a rare inside perspective to the intersection of government power, public institutions, enforcement discretion, and constitutional accountability.

For more than twenty years, Sanders has counseled thousands of clients and handled complex matters involving police use of force, sexual harassment, retaliation, systemic discrimination, immigration consequences, and related civil-rights violations. He is widely recognized as a leading New York civil-rights attorney and a prominent voice on evidence-based policing, institutional accountability, equal justice, and rights-based immigration advocacy.

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