NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The manager of a Shake Shack in Lower Manhattan filed a federal defamation lawsuit against the NYPD unions after saying officers got sick last summer because they were laced with a "toxic substance believed to be bleach."
Marcus Gilliam, 28, filed a complaint filed Monday accusing the Police Benevolent Association and Detectives’ Endowment Association of smearing his reputation, by falsely accusing him of poisoning the shakes of three cops with bleach.
Gilliam also claims he was arrested and detained for up to six hours without cause, then continued to be questioned by detectives “about putting bleach in the milkshakes” despite them knowing he hadn’t.
“No reasonable police officer would have believed that there was probable cause to arrest Plaintiff for any crime,” the filing said.
Three NYPD officers who ate at the Fulton Street Shake Shack became ill and were hospitalized after drinking milkshakes.
The officers told Gilliam, who apologized and gave them vouchers for free food and milkshakes.
Officers then "falsely informed their sergeant that Mr. Gilliam had put a 'toxic substance,' possibly bleach, in their milkshakes," which launched a major investigation, the lawsuit alleges.
Police determined there was "no criminality" by employees in the Shake Shack incident that sickened officers on June 15, 2020 after three cops from the Bronx were sent to protest duty in Lower Manhattan amid the demonstration sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis a month earlier.
"After a thorough investigation by the NYPD’s Manhattan South investigators, it has been determined that there was no criminality by Shake Shack’s employees," NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison tweeted.
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