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Former Clarkstown Police Sergeant Michael Garvey and Pizzeria Owner Tom Doran Battle Out Differences In Two Lawsuits
By Tina Traster
Former Clarkstown police sargeant and serial entrepreneur Michael Garvey, who raised money from investors to acquire a Home Care Service Agency license in 2023, is being sued by one of his investors.
That investor is also his business partner in a local pizza restaurant.
Garvey hoped to acquire a license from Full Care Inc., a dormant Licensed Home Care Services Agency (LHCSA), based in Nanuet. He had planned to take over the business and run a home care service for medically fragile pediatric patients. Garvey affiliated with Noah Doherty, a nurse who built the pediatric division at Sunshine Home Care and later founded Brightside Staffing LLC in Pomona in 2021, to transition the license and set up a new home care agency.
Doherty agreed to invest $35,000 in the business.
Meanwhile, Garvey solicited a $30,000 investment from Tom Doran, his business partner at Napoli’s Pizza in Bardonia, as well as others in the community including Clarkstown police officers and a local jeweler.
According to Doherty, the deal quickly went south when it became apparent that Full Care’s license could not be sold. Dormant or inactive LHCSA licenses (those with no clients or employees) cannot be sold or transferred and need to be surrendered to the New York State Department of Health (DOH). However, Garvey told RCBJ that insurance quotes for the new business were “three or four times” what he had anticipated, which contributed to a decision to pull the plug on the venture.
In the meantime, Garvey said “the business was up and running” and that he lost more than $150,000 in startup costs, adding that he was unable to reimburse some of the investors, including Doran. Over the course of 2024, Doran said he’d become antsy because Garvey was not sharing any documents or updates on the company’s progress.
“I was told from the very beginning I was going to get reports and there would be monthly progress meetings,” said Doran. “I never received any reports. He misled me, telling me we had clients and that the company was starting to make money. After one year of not seeing any proof, I began questioning him.”
He also asked for the stock certificates he was promised, but received nothing in return, and grew concerned, he said.
The enterprise cratered and left investors holding the bag.
“What I learned the hard way is that these licenses are not fungible assets,” said Doherty. “You can’t just sell them. It’s a very regulated process.”
Both Doherty and Doran, however, felt taken after it became clear that their investments were lost. In a lawsuit Doran filed last May in Rockland County Supreme Court, he alleges he was defrauded into making an investment into a “non-existing” company. In the lawsuit, he names Michael Garvey, his wife Bernadette Garvey, and Brightside Staffing and Consulting, d/b/a Brightside Staffing Solutions.
An exhibit in Doran’s lawsuit refers an agreement between Brightside Staffing and Consulting, a New York corporation, with Bernadette Garvey as its CEO, and Thomas Doran. The lawsuit alleges Doran gave $30,000 to a “non-existing entity” because Brightside Staffing and Consulting is not actually a registered corporation in the State of New York.
An LLC, called Brightside Staffing LLC, based in Pomona does exist. Both the non-existing corporation and the registered LLC share the same address, 978 Route 45, Suite 204, in Pomona. The existing Brightside LLC is owned and managed by Doherty, a licensed practical nurse with 15 years of clinical experience, specializing in medically fragile pediatric patients.
Court records show Bernadette Garvey executed a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) on behalf of “Brightside Staffing and Consulting, a New York Corporation” as the corporation’s CEO (Chief Executive Officer). A SAFE is an investment contract used primarily by early-stage startups. An investor provides capital, and in exchange, the company promises to issue equity later based on a triggering event. SAFE investment contracts are usually used with accredited investors who can bear the risk of loss.
In an email exchange between Michael Garvey and RCBJ, he asserted Brightside Staffing and Consulting in the SAFE agreement was the same as the LLC registered to Noah Doherty, and that he and his wife Bernadette owned and controlled two thirds of the LLC. Doherty denies the Garveys have any interest in his company; he says he owns 100 percent of the LLC. Doherty’s LLC is not named in the lawsuit as a defendant.
Doran said he made his investment in cash in 2023. When he became concerned about his investment, he discovered that Brightside Staffing and Consulting doesn’t exist. Non-existent corporations can’t execute contracts, and can’t issue shares of stock.
The suit claims the Garveys told Doran Brightside was an existing and active healthcare company and his investment would be used to enhance the company’s profitability.
Doran’s lawsuit alleges the Garveys schemed to fraudulently induce Doran to give them $30,000 in exchange for “nothing,” though Garvey said, “Doran was aware of some of my other ventures and investments and after speaking with Noah, asked to invest in Brightside.”
Doran’s lawsuit claims fraudulent inducement, unjust enrichment, and seeks $30,000 in damages for “a phony stock purchase transaction” and punitive damages of “an amount no less than $90,000” plus attorney’s fees.
Doherty also invested $35,000 with the Garveys, as did a local jeweler and at least one Clarkstown police officer. Doherty has retained an attorney and is exploring his options.
The Garveys deny wrongdoing and asserted numerous defenses in their answer to the lawsuit. Their attorney Brian Condon sought to have the case dismissed, arguing the litigation should have been filed in California instead of New York because the document Doran signed had “a Choice of Law” provision saying that California law applied to the investment contract.
Justice Rachel Tanquay disagreed, saying Choice of Law does not establish venue, or where the suit is litigated. The parties are due in court on June 1.
The Pizza Partnership
Prior to Doran filing his lawsuit, Garvey filed a suit against Doran in Rockland County Supreme Court alleging that Doran used the pizza shop’s revenue from Napoli’s Pizza, where Garvey owns a one-third interest, to fund expenses for Doran’s Valley Pizza in Lake Ridge Plaza in Valley Cottage. Doran bought Valley Pizza in 2021 and is its sole owner.
In January 2022, Garvey and Doran bought Napoli’s Pizza from GLC Rockland and have been operating it since then through Show Me The Dough, LLC. Doran owns two-thirds interest in the partnership, while Garvey has a third. According to court records, Garvey financed his investment in the business with a $150,000 promissory note.
The pizza business was profitable, but the relationship soured around the same time the Brightside investment went south.
Based on an investigation Garvey initiated into the books and records of Napoli’s Pizza, he filed a lawsuit in March of 2025 seeking an accounting of the business’s finances, damages, and the appointment of a receiver for the business. Garvey alleged Doran paid certain expenses for Valley Pizza from Napoli’s Pizza accounts to the detriment of the LLC and his ownership interest.
Garvey also alleged Doran breached his fiduciary duties to the LLC, committed corporate waste, misused company funds, and embezzled. Doran said any payments to other entities were “inadvertent” and that he repaid those expenses to Napoli’s.
In April 2025, Doran, as majority owner, told Garvey he planned to sell the assets of Napoli Pizza to an entity Doran allegedly owned or controlled, according to the suit. Garvey alleged Doran planned to sell the business for $475,000 to himself and others, but he did not show Garvey a contract. Garvey offered to buy the business for $480,000, but Doran rejected the offer.
Subsequently, Garvey requested the court appoint a Temporary Receiver to manage and operate the LLC pending further order of the Court.
Garvey, relying on admissions that some funds from Napoli were used to buy assets or pay expenses for Doran’s other pizza businesses, including Valley Pizza and Mangia (which Doran acquired in 2025 with partner and former Clarkstown Town Justice Scott Ugell), secured a court order precluding Doran from acquiring another pizza business in Rockland County while the litigation is pending.
A receiver was appointed to manage the assets and unravel the finances. When that happens, Doran will be free to sell the assets of Napoli’s to himself or a third-party, provided Garvey is provided notice and an opportunity to participate in the sale.
History
Acquisition of the LHCSA license was not Michael Garvey’s first venture.
In 2006, Garvey told the New York Times he raised about $1 million from relatives, friends and other investors to build License Monitor, Inc., a Congers corporation that alerted companies with fleet drivers of adverse changes in their employees’ drivers’ license status. According to its website, in 2006 License Monitor received the New York State Small Business Hall of Fame Award for Extraordinary Entrepreneurial Spirit. Garvey sold License Monitor to a private equity company Solera Holdings in 2012.
Garvey is most known in Rockland County for his dispute with former town supervisor Alex Gromack surrounding his tenure as a police officer. In August 2015, Garvey was terminated from his job as a Clarkstown police sergeant after a legal dispute over his disability status. Then-Town Supervisor Alex Gromack was instrumental in Garvey’s firing. Garvey donated $216,900 to the state Reform Party and the Rockland County Republican Committee, much of which was re-directed to George Hoehmann’s campaign. Hoehmann narrowly defeated Gromack in the 2015 supervisor’s race.
Bernadette Garvey, according to Clarkstown’s website, serves as a Confidential Secretary to the Town Clerk. She is also a delegate to the Rockland County Republican Committee.
