ANGELA WEISS
A New York State trooper who beforehand accused then Gov. Andrew Cuomo of harassing her whereas she was assigned to his protecting element filed a lawsuit Thursday, alleging Cuomo violated her rights earlier than his long-time aide tried to cowl up the incident.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday within the Japanese District of New York, alleges that Cuomo and high aide Melissa DeRosa “violated federal, state, and civil legal guidelines” once they tried to cowl up the sexual harassment the trooper endured in 2019. The lady, who is barely recognized as “Trooper 1” within the lawsuit, is looking for damages from the pair.
Among the many acts of sexual harassment and worse described within the lawsuit embrace Cuomo kissing her on the cheek, placing his palms down her again, and touching “her in intimate areas between her breasts and vagina.”
The lawsuit alleges that only a few days after the final assault, Cuomo requested the trooper if she might assist him discover a girlfriend.
In March 2020, the lawsuit states that after Cuomo tried to hug and kiss her, the Trooper was pressured to make a joke asking “You don’t have COVID, do you?” in an try to discourage the governor.
The allegations mirror these detailed in New York Lawyer Common Letitia James’ 2021 investigation, which discovered that Cuomo sexually harassed at the least 11 girls and fostered a “hostile” and “unsafe” work atmosphere that repeatedly coated up his “sample of inappropriate conduct.” Nevertheless, the probe concluded that Cuomo’s actions didn't name for felony litigation—a conclusion a number of different district attorneys got here to after opening their very own investigations into a few of the incidents.
The Nassau County District Lawyer beforehand declined to prosecute the trooper’s case, calling the allegations “credible, deeply troubling, however not felony below New York legislation.” Final month, the Oswego County District Lawyer’s Workplace dismissed the ultimate felony case towards Cuomo, stating that the allegations introduced by a Nationwide Grid worker didn't have “adequate authorized foundation to deliver felony prices.”
Cuomo, who left workplace final 12 months amid strain to stop over the report, has steadfastly denied or tried to clarify the incidents away as misunderstandings.
“I by no means touched anybody inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances. I'm 63 years previous, I’ve lived my total grownup life in public view. That's simply not who I'm and that’s not who I've ever been,” Cuomo mentioned after the AG’s report was launched.
However the trooper’s lawsuit alleges that Cuomo was sneaky in the best way he lured girls, stating that he “needed hugs…kisses…and to speak about intercourse” earlier than ultimately harassing them. If the ladies have been to complain, they have been allegedly “attacked by a cadre of the Governor’s closest advisors.”
“Amongst different issues, the Governor’s protectors described one among his accusers as ‘loopy’ and deliberate to close her down; pressured former subordinates to secretly file the Governor’s accusers within the hopes of getting data to make use of towards the victims (after which promptly destroyed the proof when the recordings proved unhelpful); distributed disparaging confidential personnel data to the press to assault one of many victims; drafted an ‘attacking’ and ‘sufferer shaming’ letter responding to sexual harassment allegations; and improperly ‘display screen[ed]’ allegations towards the Governor to keep away from investigation,” the lawsuit states.
Whereas a number of girls have publicly spoken out concerning the harassment they allegedly endured by the hands of the previous Democratic lawmaker, the trooper’s allegations look like uniquely brazen.
The investigation discovered that Cuomo took deliberate steps to make sure the trooper was moved onto his Protecting Providers Unit within the first place, regardless that she didn't have the historically required expertise for the celebrated function.
“They modified the minimal from 3 years to 2. Only for you,” a senior member of the trooper’s staff instructed her in a 2017 e-mail.
Excited to affix the “elite element” of the New York State Police in 2018, the trooper was initially assigned to guard Cuomo at his residence in Mount Kisco, the lawsuit notes. There, the governor started to ask her questions on her private life “whereas she was on responsibility.”
Ultimately, the trooper alleges, Cuomo’s feedback “turned more and more sexual.” He usually requested her about her relationships and whether or not she ever deliberate to get married. Regardless of the uncomfortable conversations that even Cuomo requested her to maintain quiet, the trooper started to journey with the governor earlier than ultimately becoming a member of his journey staff.
The lawsuit states that in one go to to his New York Metropolis workplace, Cuomo “positioned a finger on Trooper 1’s neck and ran it slowly down her backbone to the center of her again.”
“Trooper 1 might really feel the Governor’s finger contact her bra clasp. As he did so, he acknowledged, ‘Hey you,’” the lawsuit states.
On one other event in the summertime of 2019, Cuomo even requested the trooper if he might kiss her to which she replied within the affirmative out of concern offending him would “jeopardize her employment.”
“The Governor then kissed her on the cheek whereas acknowledging that it was towards the foundations for him to take action,” the lawsuit states.
Just a few weeks later, on Sep. 23, 2019, the trooper accompanied Cuomo to an occasion on the Belmont racetrack. The lawsuit states that because the trooper walked forward of Cuomo to carry a door open for him, “the Governor positioned the palm of his hand on her stomach button and slid it throughout her waist to her proper hip, the place her gun was holstered.”
“Trooper 1 felt violated because the Governor deliberately touched her in intimate areas between her breasts and vagina,” the lawsuit alleges.
By late 2020, nevertheless, girls have been going public with allegations of sexual harassment towards Cuomo. The lawsuit alleges that after a reporter started to poke round concerning the trooper’s place on the element, DeRosa turned particularly concerned in hiding Cuomo’s conduct—yelling on the editor of the newspaper and accusing him “of being sexist for even making the inquiry.”
Cuomo’s spokesman Wealthy Azzopardi mentioned in an announcement Thursday that the lawsuit depends on “the AG’s confirmed fraud of a report, as demonstrated by the 5 district attorneys who, one after the other – Democrat and Republican – checked out its findings and located no violations of legislation.”
“If kissing somebody on the cheek, patting somebody on the again or abdomen or waving good day at a public occasion on New 12 months’s Eve is actionable then we're all in hassle,” he mentioned. “...Gov Cuomo will struggle each try at low-cost money extortions and is anxious to have the soiled politics cease–we sit up for justice in a courtroom of legislation.”