Judge tosses NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey’s controversial abuse of authority case

The NYPD’s top uniformed cop no longer will face a controversial abuse of authority case , The Post has learned.

Charges against Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey – who stood accused of wrongfully interfering with the arrest of an ex-cop – should be dismissed, department judge Rosemarie Maldonado said on Tuesday.

Maldonado found the NYPD’s watchdog, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, acted beyond its authority when it pursued the case against Maddrey, according to documents obtained by The Post.

Maldonado found the NYPD’s watchdog, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, acted beyond its authority when it pursued the case against Maddrey, according to a 14-page decision obtained by The Post.

“The tribunal has considered and rejected all other evidence and arguments presented by CCRB in opposition to this motion,” she wrote, recommending that Commissioner Edward Caban dismiss the case.

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Maddrey’s attorney Lambros Lambrou, who spoke to The Post from his European vacation, hailed the decision.

“We are delighted with the decision and the recognition that CCRB has boundaries,” he said.

“We hope that the Police Commissioner follows her well reasoned and concise decision to dismiss.”

A CCRB spokesperson said no person, and especially no police officer, is above the law.

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“We are confident that the Police Commissioner would agree that an officer’s rank should not immunize them from accountability for misconduct,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“The dismissal of these charges sends the opposite message to both members of the NYPD and all New Yorkers.”

The decision came one day after outspoken CCRB head Arva Rice submitted her resignation to Mayor Eric Adams amid months of tension with a City Hall often accused of being unsupportive of disciplining wrongdoing cops.

Maddrey’s case has long been central to such accusations.

The case itself stemmed from a November 2021 incident in which retired cop Kruythoff Forrester allegedly pulled a gun on three young people in Brownsville who hit his security camera with a basketball.

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NYPD cops arrested Forrester, but Maddrey – who knew Forrester from his time as a precinct commander – ordered them to void it, insisting the boys be booked instead.

CCRB officials eventually found Maddrey abused his authority, prompting former NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell to discipline him – a decision that rankled City Hall officials and partly led to Sewell’s departure.

Maddrey fought the case, with his lawyer filing a last-ditch motion in June to toss it all together. CCRB members didn’t have the authority to pursue it, he argued.

Nearly two months later, Maldonado agreed.

The watchdog can only investigate misconduct by NYPD officers “towards members of the public,” Maldonado wrote, citing city law.

“Rather, the allegation of misconduct in this case involves a Respondent who had no interaction with the public, but made allegedly questionable orders after the public encounter, back at the precinct,” she wrote. “Therefore, Respondent’s ‘participation in the investigation’ at the stationhouse, and his subsequent decision to void the arrest, is a matter to be investigated by (Internal Affairs Bureau) or another NYPD oversight entity, not CCRB.”

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