Shamel Kelly poses after a news conference in New York's City Hall Park, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) — In late August, less than a week before federal agents arrived at his home with a search warrant, New York Police Department Commissioner Edward Caban cleared three officers found to have engaged in misconduct during a raid on a Brooklyn bar.

It would be one of his last official acts before resigning under a cloud of suspicion, as federal prosecutors probe allegations of influence peddling within the police department and City Hall.

The previously unreported move might be unremarkable for a leader who routinely ignored recommendations for disciplinary charges against officers, but for one fact: The owner of the same Brooklyn bar recently came forward to publicly accuse the former police commissioner's twin brother, James Caban, of trying to “extort” him in exchange for his help in smoothing relations with local police.

The bar owner, Shamel Kelly, says he is now speaking with prosecutors as a potential witness.

That investigation is one of several underway tied to the administration of Mayor Eric Adams, who faces federal charges of accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals. Adams has pleaded not guilty.

Edward and James Caban have denied wrongdoing and have not been charged with any crimes. Federal prosecutors have not explained why they seized phones from both Caban brothers.

In Kelly’s telling, his problems with the police began shortly after his juice bar secured a temporary liquor license in 2023. Throughout that spring, officers from the local precinct would arrive at the bar multiple times each week, levying expensive fines for loud music and other infractions.

On one of those nights, in April of 2023, Kelly said officers tackled a man who refused to provide identification, shouted at customers to leave, broke a door and searched the bar without a warrant. “They came in like a gang,” Kelly recalled.

When he went to the precinct to complain, Kelly said an NYPD lieutenant told him he would “make his life a living hell and send inspections to his business every day,” according to a copy of the complaint he filed days later with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent panel that investigates cases of police misconduct.

Desperate for assistance, Kelly said he reached out to an associate of the mayor, who offered to put him in touch with a coordinator in City Hall’s nightlife office, Raymond Martin. In August 2023, Martin connected Kelly to James Caban, who he identified as a “security consultant,” according to text messages shared with The Associated Press.

Caban touted his ties to the local precinct, Kelly said, but he did not mention that his twin brother, Edward Caban, was the commissioner.

After exchanging text messages, James Caban told the bar owner by phone he could broker a meeting with the precinct commander for an initial fee of $2,500, according to Kelly.

Kelly declined the offer, which he likened to a "shakedown scheme.” Soon after, local police seemed to ramp up their enforcement against the bar, he said.

“It just got worse,” Kelly told The Associated Press. “The officers were even more consistent in standing in front of the establishment in groups of 15 to 20 at a time, intimidating the business and harassing customers.”

A lawyer for James Caban, Sean Hecker, said his client had run a “perfectly legal” consulting firm, acting as a liaison between private companies and the police department, where he previously served as an officer. James Caban was fired in 2001 after the department determined he had threatened and wrongfully detained a cabdriver.

Martin, the mayoral aide who first connected Kelly with James Caban, was fired by the city after Kelly's allegations were reported last month. He did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Kelly said he eventually shuttered his business as a result of the fines and harassment. Records show officers visited the bar more than 60 times in the course of the year, issuing tickets for infractions that included “loud talking” and “truck music.”

After reviewing body-camera footage and interviewing witnesses, the Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated misconduct allegations against three of the officers involved in the episode at the bar on April 7, 2023, in which a man was tackled, concluding they had violated department policies around the use of force and courtesy, and that one officer had used a sexually offensive slur.

The board recommended the officer who used the slur face administrative charges — the most serious penalty — and that the others receive a type of discipline that could have led to the loss of vacation days.

But on Aug. 30, Edward Caban intervened to ensure the officers would not face discipline, exercising a power to override the board’s recommendations that he invoked more often than any police commissioner before him. The decision was communicated to Kelly in a letter dated Sept. 24, 2024.

A police department spokesperson said the recommendations were tossed out because the board had not provided enough time for NYPD officials to conduct their own “thorough and diligent investigation.”

Kelly said Caban’s decision to override the discipline was “unjust,” if also unsurprising.

“Looking back at the situation, knowing the brothers’ connection, I could see why he would deny that,” Kelly said. “I was just hoping they’d do the right thing.”

Inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan were not returned.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024