The former police chief of the United States’ first Muslim-majority city abruptly left a prominent new position in New York after a lawsuit accused him of beating his wife, tearing out her fingernail during an argument over an alleged affair and attempting to purchase a presidential pardon from Donald Trump for as much as $5 million.
Jamiel Altaheri, 43, had been appointed to a role with New York City Health and Hospitals under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The appointment followed his history-making tenure as police chief of Hamtramck, a city roughly five miles north of downtown Detroit.
However, Altaheri resigned after just one day on the job when questions emerged about the allegations. The position marked his return to New York, where he had spent 20 years with the NYPD before moving to the small Michigan city in 2024.
Altaheri has rejected the accusations as “baseless” and “old news.” In a statement to Our News Outlet, he said “Islamophobia” in the Midwest had fueled “false narratives and just pure hate.” Before transferring to Michigan, he cofounded the NYPD Muslim Officers Society and established the Yemeni American Law Enforcement Officers Association.
The former chief was named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed in June 2025. He stepped down from his New York post overseeing police services at the city’s hospitals shortly after Mayor Mamdani’s inauguration, following questions from The New York Times about the claims.
Although Hamtramck’s investigative report last year referred to alleged misconduct, the lawsuit’s full allegations were detailed more recently in an August 2026 report by Real Clear Investigations.
The claims were brought by former Hamtramck City Manager Max Garbarino and special investigator David Adamczyk. They alleged that Altaheri, five city council members and former Mayor Amer Ghalib fired them because they intended to disclose the accusations.
One of the most serious allegations claims Altaheri instructed subordinates not to file reports stating that he had struck his wife. According to the lawsuit, he said the “formal” process was not the “correct way” to handle the alleged domestic violence incident.
Former Hamtramck Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri had previously faced allegations of misconduct and abuse during his time with the force
A lawsuit naming Altaheri as a defendant accused him of abusing his position. He told Our News Outlet that the allegations were “baseless”
The lawsuit alleged that Altaheri tried to bribe the president to obtain a pardon for an unnamed friend
Altaheri resigned as Hamtramck’s police chief and reached a settlement with the city last fall. An agreement obtained by Click On Detroit and the New York Times reported that he received a lump-sum severance payment equivalent to five months of his base salary. The agreement recorded that he had resigned voluntarily.
‘I retired from NYPD honorably and went to Hamtramck to develop and advance this police department, creating the first youth and citizens academy as well as hiring black, Asian and women officers – I had a lawsuit against the city and voluntarily resigned and recovered severance pay and was offered [my] job back at [a] later time which I declined,’ Altaheri told Our News Outlet.
He added that the allegations of abuse or misconduct were defamatory and that he received an apology from the mayor and city council after he left the force.
‘Islamophobia in the state of Michigan and across this nation has led to the spread of false narratives and just pure hate and stupidity,’ Altaheri also told Our News Outlet.
Hamtramck was historically a city of majority Polish immigrants, but Bangladeshi and Yemeni immigrants overtook the population in the 1990s, and the two-square-mile town is now the country’s first Muslim-majority city, with the nation’s first and only all-Muslim city council
Among the allegations in the lawsuit were instances where Adamczyk allegedly witnessed Altaheri abusing his wife but was told to keep it quiet since he was the chief of police.
Adamczyk alleged that Altaheri’s significant other made comments about getting hit and punched.
He alleged that he confronted his chief about the behavior, to which Altaheri responded: ‘You guys here in Michigan don’t handle things the correct way; you guys make everything formal.’
Adamczyk also detailed an alleged disturbing encounter on a couples cruise trip with Altaheri and his significant other.
She allegedly discovered evidence on Altaheri’s phone of his affair with a local elementary school principal, leading to a heated altercation where she ‘reported being physically assaulted,’ the lawsuit stated.
Altaheri’s significant other alleged that the argument descended into violence and that he ripped off one of her fingernails.
Altaheri shared photos of Facebook congratulating Donald Trump and JD Vance on the victory
Altaheri’s previous colleagues cited multiple troubling instances in a 2025 lawsuit. He was never accused of criminal conduct and has since denied the allegations
Adamczyk also alleged that he and his wife recorded conversations between Altaheri and his significant other, including one where comments were made about the chief punching her in the stomach and striking her with a shower curtain.
His significant other also allegedly confided in Adamczyk that Altaheri had locked her inside their home for an extended period of time and she was unable to care for their child.
Altaheri denied the allegations and told Our News Outlet that the 911 calls were in response to his dog going missing or other tenants in the building.
The explosive lawsuit prompted an internal investigation into city leadership, which substantiated several of the other allegations not related to domestic violence against Altaheri.
The investigation concluded that after Garbarino placed Altaheri on administrative leave, he directed an evidence technician to delete data from his phone.
Another instance cited included a night when Altaheri was accused of driving drunk in his city-issued vehicle with other officers after a night at a strip club.
Third-party investigators cited multiple witnesses who corroborated the story and found video evidence of Altaheri driving erratically and using his siren lights to run red lights.
The investigation alleged that an officer obtained this video footage and used it as blackmail to keep his position after Altaheri discovered they were allegedly committing timecard fraud.
Former City Manager Max Garbarino filed the lawsuit after he was fired for placing Altaheri on leave
Special investigator David Adamczyk cited multiple alleged instances of misconduct by Altaheri. He was let go from the force for alleged timecard fraud
In addition to the misconduct, the investigation found that at least five 911 calls have been reported at Altaheri’s residence by the mother of his son, who was two years old at the time.
On September 19, 2024, the same night as the strip club incident, officers responded to his residence after a woman called 911 and hung up.
Officers reported that her foot was injured and treated the scene as a medical incident; however, Altaheri suggested they investigate her for drug use.
‘Altaheri then told one of the officers to write the police report in a way that would be as vague as possible while helping him build his custody case, the investigation concluded.
‘The police report described the woman’s eyes as “glossy, bloodshot, and . . . not to react to light,” while omitting any mention of Altaheri’s presence during the incident.’
The lawsuit also alleged Altaheri punched a man in the head at a hookah lounge in Dearborn.
The report did not substantiate allegations of domestic violence or that he misused his authority to cover up abuse allegations.
Altaheri has also been accused of connecting with Mark Zarkin, a Michigan restaurateur and Trump ally, in order to solicit a presidential pardon for a friend, who was not named in the lawsuit.
Zarkin was appointed by Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as a mortgage consultant last November, Reuters reported at the time.
Zarkin pleaded no contest to a felony sex crime involving an encounter with a ‘mentally incapacitated woman,’ but the conviction was later vacated. He denied being appointed to the role and told Reuters he has no criminal history.
Altaheri allegedly said Zarkin would pay Trump between $1 and $5 million to arrange the pardon, and Altaheri would make at least $10,000 from the deal, according to the lawsuit.
Adamczyk alleged that Altaheri traveled with Zarkin to Mar-a-Lago to meet with high-profile millionaires about the deal, according to the lawsuit.
Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the White House, denied the accusations, writing in a statement to Our News Outlet: ‘Pardons are NOT for sale. President Trump performs his constitutional duties in an ethically sound manner.
‘The Trump Administration has a robust pardon review process which includes White House counsel, the Department of Justice, Alice Johnson, and ultimately, the President himself as the final decider.’
The independent investigation did not confirm or dispel the allegations; however, investigators found at least two city identification cards for Zarkin for an unknown reason, but noted they did not appear to violate protocol.
After the allegations in the lawsuit came to light, Garbarino placed Altaheri on administrative leave, but the city council voted unanimously to fire him instead.
The lawsuit also accused Altaheri of conspiring with restaurateur Mark Zarkin to secure a presidential pardon for an unnamed friend
Zarkin is a prominent ally of Trump’s in Detroit politics. He was previously reportedly tapped as a consultant to the Federal Housing Finance Agency
Altaheri and the other defendants denied the allegations and countersued last summer.
A motion to adjourn was filed in August, and the parties are scheduled to meet for a settlement conference in November, according to the Wayne County court docket.
Adamczyk was found to have been recording other officers and committing overtime abuse, according to the internal investigation into city leadership after the lawsuit was filed.
The independent investigation did not substantiate allegations against Garbarino but noted that he ‘exercised significant poor judgment in his role.’ Neither accuser still holds their position.
Mayor Amer Ghalib later praised Altaheri and said in a Facebook post that his ‘journey has just started, and nobody can stop it.’
Ghalib left his position after Trump nominated him as US ambassador to Kuwait, but he was never confirmed.
After the controversy in Michigan, Altaheri set his sights on a return to New York City.
He had previously served as a commanding officer at a precinct in Queens, where he crossed paths with Mamdani when he was an assemblyman, the New York Times reported in February.
A month after he resigned in Hamtramck, Altaheri told Fox 2 Detroit that the administration of the then-mayor-elect offered him a job with the city. He later wrote on social media that he ‘would be proud to serve the City of New York again under the Mamdani administration if given the opportunity.’
The lawsuit accused former Mayor of Hamtramck, Amer Ghalib (second from the right), and several city council members of firing two employees because they were planning to come forward with misconduct allegations
Mayor Ghalib praised Altaheri’s tenure with the police department. Ghalib later left his position to pursue an unsuccessful role in the Trump administration
After his stint in Michigan, Altaheri was vying for a position in New York under Mayor Mamdani, but resigned after one day with New York City Health and Hospitals
Despite Altaheri’s comments, the mayor’s office claimed to the Times that it had not offered him a position with the NYPD and that it was unaware of his discussions with New York City Health and Hospitals.
Altaheri told the Times he abruptly resigned a day after starting because he was asked about the allegations noted in the independent investigation.
‘Of course they knew about the investigation. You can Google my name and it all comes up. Obviously everything had been disclosed during the entire application process,’ he said.
‘I got annoyed when they asked me about it. And I said, you know what, maybe that’s a sign.’
Altaheri told Our News Outlet that he was offered the job, but it did not come to fruition ‘because of my relationship to [the] mayor and hiring [a] Muslim will lead to such false and negative narratives.’
No criminal charges have been brought against Altaheri, and the civil lawsuit is still ongoing. He has denied all accusations.
Altaheri now runs a consulting company and is an executive manager. He told Our News Outlet that he is not planning to seek a public position.
He appeared on a Yemeni broadcast channel in June to discuss his involvement with the Yemen United Club.
Our News Outlet has reached out to Altaheri’s lawyers, Mamdani’s office, the parties involved in the lawsuit, Hamtramck police, city officials and New York Health and Hospitals for comment. Our News Outlet has also attempted to contact Zarkin.
