Jeffrey Maddrey, the former NYPD chief of department who resigned in late 2024 amid allegations he traded overtime for sex, is suing New York City for cutting off the taxpayer-funded lawyers who had been defending him in four lawsuits.

The suit was filed in early June in Manhattan Supreme Court by Maddrey’s attorney, Lambros Y. Lambrou, and first reported by the New York Post. Lambrou argues the city’s Law Department yanked the money for his client’s legal bills in bad faith, describing the decision in an April email filed with the court as a “politically motivated absurdity.”

When a city employee gets sued over something they did on the job, the city usually pays for their legal defense, a standard practice that covers everyone from beat cops to caseworkers. Under then-Mayor Eric Adams, the Law Department agreed in 2024 to cover Maddrey in four civil suits and assigned him the firm Wilson Elser. Those suits allege Maddrey took part in retaliation, workplace discrimination, and covering up sexual harassment claims against another Adams ally, retired NYPD official Timothy Pearson.