A Brooklyn bar owner who says former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban’s twin brother tried to shake him down for cash is suing the city, both Caban brothers, and several NYPD officers, alleging he was forced out of business for refusing to play ball.
Shamel Kelly, the owner of the now-shuttered Juice & Moore Bar in Coney Island, made his allegations in a $6 million federal lawsuit this week.
Kelly leveled similar allegations against Caban’s brother, James, in a 2024 interview with the Daily News, saying that he turned over videos of the alleged NYPD pressure campaign to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
So far, no one has been accused of criminal wrongdoing in this case, and the status of the federal probe remains unclear.
The feds raided homes of and seized electronics from James Caban and scores of NYPD officials, including then-Commissioner Caban in early Sept. 2024. Edward Caban resigned his post that month amid the fallout.
“The NYPD will decline comment on pending litigation,” an NYPD spokesperson said Wednesday.
Edward Caban’s attorneys did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday. James Caban’s lawyer, Emile Sayage, said he denies Kelly’s allegations. “Mr. James Caban vehemently denies all the allegations as being false and a fabrication,” he said Wednesday.
Kelly opened Juice & Moore in June 2022, and 311 complaints started pouring in soon after, with city data showing the NYPD has fielded more than 80 complaints for “Loud Music/Party” there since 2022, the News reported.
In his lawsuit, filed by lawyers Harry Daniels and Bernarda Villalona, Kelly alleges that police scrutiny intensified after he filed a Civilian Complaint Review Board complaint against an officer who confronted him as he was unloading items outside his business in September 2022 and demanded proof of ownership.
“You do not own these streets; we own these streets; we are the NYPD,” the officers said before threatening him with enforcement action and giving him a summons for an illegal U-turn that was later dismissed, according to the lawsuit.
After the CCRB complaint, cops from the 60th Precinct made several visits to the bar, often just standing outside en masse without issuing any summonses or violations, the lawsuit alleges. Videos reviewed by The News show several of these visits, where uniformed officers were recorded standing in groups outside the front door.
The NYPD conducted raids in April and June 2023, and that August Kelly was referred to Ray Martin, a longtime nightlife adviser to then-Mayor Adams — who referred Kelly to James Caban, the police commissioner’s twin brother, according to the lawsuit.
Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (right) and NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban are pictured at City Hall on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)
James Caban said he could resolve Kelly’s problem in exchange for cash, asking for an initial $2,500, the lawsuit alleges. Kelly refused, and the commissioner’s brother warned him he would not be open for much longer.
NYPD visits to the bar became more frequent, sometimes involving dozens of officers and more than 10 NYPD vehicles planted outside, and the bar finally shut for good in November 2023, according to the lawsuit.
In all, police visited his bar more than 60 times, the lawsuit claims.
Before resigning as police commissioner, Edward Caban cleared officers who were found to have committed misconduct during that April 2023 raid, according to the lawsuit.
The city fired Martin after Kelly came forward.
“Shamel Kelly was like any one of us, simply trying to make a living and the very officers and officials who were supposed to be protecting him extorted him and ran him out of business like they were mobsters in a bad movie,” Harry Daniels, one of Kelly’s lawyers said. “Every New Yorker should be concerned about this and call on the mayor to make it right.”