FBI agents, NYPD investigators, and federal prosecutors fanned out across New York City on Wednesday morning, executing search warrants at multiple locations, including the home of former NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, as part of a sprawling bribery investigation into current and former members of the nation's largest police force.
The searches, carried out jointly by the FBI, the NYPD, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, target allegations that Maddrey accepted bribes in exchange for favors, promotions, and assignments, CBS News reported, citing two senior law enforcement officials in New York. In a separate but simultaneous federal action, the FBI arrested Frank Carone, former chief of staff to ex-Mayor Eric Adams, at his Manhattan residence on bribery-related charges tied to a city contract.
The twin operations mark a grim new chapter for a department already reeling from leadership scandals and a pattern of alleged misconduct at the highest levels of its command structure.
The Maddrey probe: favors, promotions, and a trail of allegations
Maddrey held the title of Chief of Department, making him the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the NYPD before his resignation. His departure came after accusations that he engaged in quid pro quo sexual harassment, allegedly coercing a subordinate, Lt. Quathisha Epps, to perform unwanted sexual favors in exchange for overtime pay opportunities.
Epps filed a federal EEOC complaint detailing the alleged arrangement. Fox News reported that Epps was the NYPD's top earner in fiscal year 2024, pulling in more than $400,000, more than half of which came from overtime, while serving in an administrative position in Maddrey's office.
Maddrey, through his lawyer, has described his relationship with Epps as "consensual" and "adult," denying any sexual misconduct. But the federal probe now goes well beyond the sexual harassment claims, reaching into bribery allegations involving the dispensing of promotions and assignments, the currency of power inside a 36,000-officer department.
The NYPD's Internal Affairs Division is working alongside federal authorities on the investigation. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch issued a statement on the department's official X account:
"When I became Police Commissioner, I promised New Yorkers that under my leadership the NYPD would conduct itself with integrity and that there would be a thorough investigation of any claim that members of service failed to meet that standard."
Whether that promise holds will depend on what the search warrants turn up, and whether the department's leadership is willing to follow the evidence wherever it leads.
More names, more probes
Maddrey is not the only senior officer caught in the federal dragnet. Current NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy, who commands the Manhattan South precinct, is the subject of a separate probe. His duties have been modified, and he has been transferred out and replaced by NYPD Assistant Chief Melissa Eger.
Former NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard, who retired last year, is also part of the investigation involving McCarthy. The specific allegations against McCarthy and Sheppard have not been publicly detailed.
The breadth of the probe, touching a former chief of department, a sitting assistant chief, and a former deputy commissioner, suggests the rot runs deeper than any single bad actor. This is a pattern that has surfaced in departments across the country, from a Minneapolis police chief forced out for tampering with an investigation into his own conduct to other high-ranking officers who treated their badges as licenses for personal enrichment.
The Carone arrests: a separate but parallel scandal
While the NYPD searches were underway, the FBI simultaneously arrested Frank Carone at his Manhattan home. Carone served as chief of staff to former Mayor Eric Adams, himself no stranger to federal legal scrutiny. The charges against Carone stem from a grand jury indictment in the Eastern District of New York, which was expected to be unsealed later Wednesday.
Three others were arrested alongside Carone: his brother Anthony Carone, Queens hotel owner Yan Po Zhu, and an unnamed employee of Zhu's hotel. The alleged scheme centers on bribery tied to a city contract, though the specific contract has not been publicly identified.
Federal authorities have described the Carone investigation as separate from the NYPD bribery probe, different defendants, different federal districts, different alleged schemes. But the optics are impossible to ignore. The former mayor's chief of staff and the former chief of the mayor's police department both facing federal action on the same morning paints a picture of a city government riddled with corruption at its upper reaches.
The case echoes a broader pattern of law enforcement leaders facing serious criminal allegations. An Indiana police chief was recently charged with misconduct and theft after a federal raid, and a former Suffolk County police chief faced his own disgrace in the courts. These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a failure of institutional accountability.
A department in crisis
The allegations against Maddrey extend beyond the bribery probe. AP News reported that Maddrey faces multiple misconduct allegations, including claims from police captain Gabrielle Walls, who alleged he repeatedly made unwanted advances and attempted to kiss her. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's spokesperson called the allegations "extremely serious and disturbing claims that allegedly occurred at N.Y.P.D. headquarters in Manhattan."
Eric Sanders, the lawyer representing Lt. Epps, did not hold back about the department's failure to act sooner.
"This should have been done a long time ago. This has been years in the making, this kind of behavior."
Sanders also stated that "Ms. Epps has endured profound harm at the hands of individuals who exploited their positions of power for personal gain." That framing, individuals exploiting positions of power, captures the core failure here. When the people entrusted with enforcing the law use their authority to extract personal benefits, every honest officer and every citizen who depends on fair policing pays the price.
Newsmax reported that the scandal triggered leadership reshuffling and exposed what it called a broader pattern of alleged misconduct within the department. The NYPD has seen significant turnover in its senior ranks, and the federal probe now threatens to accelerate that churn.
The case also raises uncomfortable questions about how long these alleged arrangements persisted and who else may have known. A subordinate earning more than $400,000 in a single fiscal year, largely from overtime, while working an administrative role in the chief's office is the kind of anomaly that should have triggered scrutiny long before a federal complaint forced the issue.
Misconduct among law enforcement leaders is not unique to New York. Cases involving officers abusing their authority over people in custody and chiefs facing criminal charges have surfaced across the country. But the scale of what is unfolding in New York, with multiple senior officials under investigation and the former mayor's top aide arrested on the same day, stands in a category of its own.
What remains unanswered
Major questions hang over both investigations. No charges have been publicly filed against Maddrey in the bribery probe; the case appears to remain at the search-warrant stage. The specific favors, promotions, and assignments allegedly traded for bribes have not been detailed. The city contract at the center of the Carone indictment has not been identified. And none of the named subjects, Maddrey, McCarthy, Sheppard, or the Carone defendants, have publicly responded to the latest round of allegations and charges.
The relationship between the two federal districts handling these cases, the Southern District overseeing the NYPD probe and the Eastern District prosecuting the Carone matter, also remains unclear. Federal authorities say the investigations are separate, but the overlapping timelines and the shared backdrop of City Hall corruption invite skepticism about just how neatly those lines can be drawn.
Commissioner Tisch promised integrity and thorough investigation. Those are the right words. But words from One Police Plaza have been cheap before. What matters now is whether the institution follows through, or whether the next round of searches catches another layer of leadership that looked the other way.
When the people who are supposed to hold the line are the ones crossing it, the public has every right to demand more than promises. They deserve consequences.
