NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Former NYPD Commissioner’s Lawsuit Explained, Police Unions Endorse Adams for Reelection, No Casino for the Bronx and Spotted Lanternflies Return

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

Former NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon filed a civil racketeering lawsuit accusing the Adams Administration of running a criminal enterprise through city government. Plus, a number of city law enforcement unions are endorsing Mayor Adams' re-election campaign. Also, the gaming company Bally's won't be able to build a casino in the Bronx. And finally, a lesson on spotted lanternflies.

A former NYPD commissioner's lawsuit explained. Police unions endorse Mayor Adams for re-election. No casino for the Bronx. And spotted lantern flies return. From WMYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre. We're following up on an explosive lawsuit against Mayor Eric Adams and top brass at the NYPD. And it's coming from an unusual plaintiff, the former New York City Police Commissioner.

Tom Donlan briefly served as interim commissioner last year. In the suit filed this week, he's alleging a widespread culture of corruption and even criminal activity in the department. WNYC's Ben Fewerhurt spent the past day peeling through the lawsuit. He says it includes all sorts of allegations, including bid rigging, overtime abuse, and fraudulent promotions. And the suit says Adams and these top officials, including cause-doxry, John. Shell and Jeff Maghry headed out for Donlan after he was appointed to the position and used their positions in the department to retaliate against him. In one allegation, Donlan said the NYPD unlawfully arrested his wife after a minor traffic

accident in Manhattan and then leaked news of her arrest to the press. Tom Donlin is a former FBI agent. He also served as a director of New York State's Office of Homeland Security. So he's a well-respected law enforcement figure who took the reins of the NYPD at a pretty chaotic time. Donlan was appointed interim commissioner in September 2024, after the former commissioner, Edward Caban, stepped down following an FBI raid at his house. You may remember, this happened just weeks before Mayor Adams himself was indicted by federal prosecutors. Those charges were eventually dismissed. Neither Adams or the NYPD have commented on the lawsuit, but Ben says

he received a statement from City Hall, calling Donlin a disgruntled former employee and accusing him of being a, quote, ineffective police commissioner. The statement went on to say he was rightfully removed as commissioner, and this suit is nothing but an attempt to cash in on taxpayers' money. And they also say the suit is meritless, and it'll be challenging court. That's WMYC's Ben Fewer heard. In other local news, a number of city law enforcement unions are endorsing Mayor Adams' re-election campaign.

The unions include those that represent detectives, sergeants, and lieutenants in the NYPD. The announcement came Thursday at a rally at City Hall. New York City's largest police union, the Police Benevolent Association, is notably not among the unions who will endorse the mayor. The PBA is currently in a legal dispute with the city after the NYPD moved to fire 30 police officers last week. A PBA spokesperson says the union has its own endorsement process that it's still working through. The gaming company, Bally's won't be able to build a casino in the Bronx. That's all thanks to a city council vote this week. WMYC's urban Vanekapal explains. Bally's plan was one of eight casino proposals submitted to the state last month.

The company said its $4 billion project would be an economic engine for the Bronx. The council thought otherwise, voting 29 to 9 against the proposal. Councilmember Christy Marmarado, who represents the district where the project would have been cited, was one of the no votes. She said in a statement that the project did not meet the standards the community deserves. The State Gaming Council is expected to award three downstate gaming licenses by the end of this year. Bally's did not respond to a request for comment. Spotted lanternflies are back for the summer. After the break, a brief science lesson on the invasive insect.

Stay close. There are plenty of things that signifies summer in the city. Neighborhood block parties, that Mr. Softie jingle that you can't get out of your head, and now spotted lanternflies. That's right. They're back. Kristen Wenshiel is assistant professor of biology at NYU. She says Spotted Lantern Flies arrived from China to the U.S. sometime around 2014. They have been spreading from around the Philadelphia area, moving northward, and they arrived in New York City around 2020, 2019 or so. And they've

just been going crazy since then. When spotted lanternflies first arrived in New York State, authorities told everyone to stomp on them. But the professor isn't too sure how much that helps. She says the lanternflies have a natural predator defense system called swarmy. That's why we see them in huge abundances on trees and buildings. And so just like we see with cicadas, there's kind of no way that a predator could ever kill them all and effectively get rid of the species. If you want to stop on them, I'm not going to stop you, but if you don't, that's fine too. Professor Winschell has done a ton of research on the invasive insect. And according to her findings, lanternflies are moving northeast.

Researchers have noticed an uptick in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. She says at this point, there's no way to control the insect. If anything, she says we need to start understanding how and why they're spreading. And why they're specifically seeming to spread through urban corridors and through human transportation systems. And I think that's going to be the main way we can keep them from making more of these long-distance jumps, say, to the west coast of the United States, where they might threaten the wine industry, which none of us want, obviously. But they seem particularly adept at using

human infrastructure and transportation to be making these long-distance jumps. Spotted lanternflies have certainly changed since their debut in the Big Apple five years ago. One of the biggest changes is the timing of their life cycle. Wenshiel says they're showing up on average. earlier and earlier every year. And so what this means is more time that they are active in each life cycle phase, more time that they have to find mates and reproduce and disperse and find ways to disperse. You know, the environment of the northeastern United States is very different from the environment in which they evolved in China. And they're actually not very abundant in China. They are much, much, much more abundant here. And so we're trying to understand how might

their physiology be changing. Invasive species can be difficult to control, but Winchell says it's not impossible. She and other researchers are working on strategies to keep them from expanding further. But she says, I'm not convinced at this point that we'll be able to eradicate them. That's Kristen Winchow, assistant professor of biology at NYU. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.