NEW YORK — Soon after he was named police commissioner by Mayor Eric Adams, Thomas Donlon made it a priority to examine the evidence storage practices in NYPD warehouses around the city.

He was stunned at what he found — and then shocked at the reaction from police brass, according to his blockbuster lawsuit filed Wednesday alleging top NYPD officials operated a “corrupt enterprise” that rewarded cronies and punished enemies.

They didn’t applaud his initiative. They got angry.

Two years earlier in December 2022, a massive fire caused by an electrical “blowout” or explosion in the department’s Erie Basin complex in Red Hook destroyed decades of materials including crucial DNA evidence. Fuel for the fire, it was found, came from cardboard boxes, barrels and paper bags used to store the evidence.

Within days of the blaze, the NYPD promised “a careful accounting” of what was lost. But after Donlon became commissioner and asked then Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey for a “final comprehensive report” on the fire, he was told none was available, the lawsuit states.

Donlon’s view was the fact the cause was known “does not excuse the NYPD’s apparent failure to thoroughly investigate such a critical event,” the lawsuit states.

The video player is currently playing an ad. Donlon decided to visit warehouses himself, the lawsuit states. In one visit, he found “decades of evidence, vital to countless cases, haphazardly piled in cardboard boxes and paper barrels, devoid of proper labeling, fireproof storage, or any systematic categorization,” the lawsuit states.

“Aisles were unmarked, logs non-existent,” Donlon’s lawsuit continues. “Evidence from the NYPD’s Information Technology Bureau, cases dating back to 1981, sat in decaying cardboard boxes” rather than fireproof or metal containers.

He alleges there was a lack of safety protocols, fire prevention practices, and proper building inspections. Drug contraband, hazardous materials were stored without obvious documentation. Some of the facilities lacked functioning heat and air conditioning.

He also discovered there was no “functional” tracking system to locate evidence, he claims in the suit. Some evidence was scattered or inconsistently marked and at least one cop on his visits questioned whether the fire suppression systems worked.

There was also minimal effort to protect the case evidence – which he notes in the lawsuit “might exonerate the innocent,” but also “handed” defense lawyers a tactical advantage that potentially weakens prosecutions.

Adams Wednesday said Donlon’s accusations against the department were “baseless.”

“We’re moving forward, the courts will handle that,” he said. “Lawsuit’s baseless, disgruntled employee, this is caught up in the environment right now of all the politics. It’s a baseless suit.”

Elizabeth Felber of the Legal Aid Society said her office requested a list of evidence lost in the fire a few days afterward. But to date, two years and seven months later, the NYPD has yet to respond.

“We can sort of accept them ignoring defense counsel, but it’s really shocking that this former police commissioner was treated the same way,” said Felber, supervising attorney of the Wrongful Conviction Unit.

“It speaks volumes about the attitude of the mayor and the NYPD, that somehow they are above the law, that they aren’t accountable when negligence takes place,”

“It just another manifestation of how it’s such a low priority for them,” she added.

On Wednesday, following a Daily News inquiry, Council Member Gale Brewer sent a letter to the city Department of Investigation calling for a probe of the NYPD’s evidence storage practices.

In the letter, obtained by The News, Brewer cites an “absence of accountability or corrective action following the Erie Basin fire.”

“Mr. Donlon alleges the Police Department failed to thoroughly investigate the Erie Basin fire and makes “no effort to protect the invaluable work of hard-working NYPD investigators,” Brewer wrote.

Brewer’s letter comes nearly two years after a June 2023 hearing she held on the warehouse fire fall out. Felber testified as did Mariah Martinez of New York County Defender Services.

“We are unable to identify how many of our current and past cases have been impacted because the NYPD has refused to provide any detailed account of the scope of the fire’s damage,” Martinez said. “The NYPD’s silence on the matter is alarming.”

In January, News-12 reported there have been three NYPD warehouse fires in three years – the Dec. 13, 2022 blaze, a second involving 10 vehicles in November and a third involving e-bike fires on Jan. 29 – all in the Red Hook complex.

The NYPD did not immediately reply to requests for comment. But at the 2023 Council hearing, NYPD official Michael Clark blamed Hurricane Sandy for previously damaging evidence at the warehouse. He said storing evidence in cardboard or paper barrels is the most effective way to preserve biological evidence.

After his warehouse visits, Donlon states in the lawsuit he held meetings with Maddrey, First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella, then Chief of Patrol John Chell and then Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry, now a deputy mayor, to underscore his concern.

But, he writes in the suit, the police officials got angry that Donlon had opened that can of worms.

Maddrey was “livid.” the lawsuit alleges, and complained to Mayor Adams. It’s not clear from the lawsuit what the mayor did after Maddrey’s complaint.

In the end, no action was taken, Donlon’s suit states.

“This horrific and embarrassing mess demanded immediate attention, yet those at the highest levels failed to act,” the lawsuit alleges. “The scale of necessary reforms is massive and absolutely essential.”

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