By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 8/29/2026
Category: NYPD / Civil Rights / Public Corruption / Accountability
NEW YORK CITY, NY –
A Coney Island bar owner says the NYPD turned routine enforcement into a campaign of retaliation after he refused to pay $2,500 to the twin brother of then-Police Commissioner Edward Caban.
Shamel Kelly, the former owner of Juice & Moore Bar, is seeking at least $6 million in a federal civil-rights lawsuit against New York City, the Caban brothers and several police officers. His claims have not been proven in court, and no one has been criminally charged based on the allegations in his suit.
Kelly says the conflict began in September 2022, when an officer confronted him outside his business, questioned whether he owned the property and issued a summons for an illegal U-turn. The summons was later dismissed, according to the lawsuit.
After Kelly filed a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, he alleges officers from the 60th Precinct repeatedly appeared outside the bar. The suit says the visits escalated into raids in April and June 2023.
In one June operation, Kelly alleges more than 40 officers descended on the business and issued 26 violations. He says every violation was eventually dismissed. The lawsuit estimates police visited the bar more than 60 times, sometimes arriving with more than 10 vehicles.
City records also show neighbors filed more than 80 complaints alleging loud music or party conditions at the location since 2022, according to local reporting. Those complaints provide enforcement context, but they do not resolve Kelly’s allegation that police action became retaliatory.
Kelly says he sought help from the mayor’s community-affairs operation in August 2023. According to the suit, a City Hall adviser directed him to James Caban, Edward Caban’s twin brother.
James Caban allegedly offered to end Kelly’s problems with the NYPD in exchange for an initial $2,500 payment. Kelly says he refused and was warned that the bar would not stay open much longer. Juice & Moore closed in November 2023.
The lawsuit further alleges Edward Caban used his authority to clear officers accused of misconduct during one raid and fostered an environment in which officers could violate constitutional rights. Edward Caban told Gothamist he had never met Kelly. James Caban’s attorney denied the allegations, and the NYPD declined to comment on pending litigation.
The stakes extend beyond one shuttered business. If Kelly’s claims are substantiated, they would describe a system in which access to police leadership could be sold while ordinary oversight complaints triggered more enforcement instead of independent review.
The case also puts the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the NYPD chain of command and City Hall’s referral practices under scrutiny. New Yorkers deserve to know who tracked Kelly’s complaint, who authorized repeated operations and whether commanders examined the pattern before the business closed.
The lawsuit is now the vehicle for those questions. Discovery could test Kelly’s account against police records, body-camera footage, summons histories, internal communications and the defendants’ testimony.
For now, the central claims remain allegations. But the volume of alleged police visits, the dismissal of cited violations and the claimed cash demand warrant a transparent accounting from the city agencies and officials named in the case.
Sources
Gothamist: Brooklyn bar owner details NYPD shakedown claims
Patch: Brooklyn bar owner refused to pay, then police kept coming
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