The final New York county that was investigating sexual misconduct charges against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo will not press charges, the district attorney’s office announced.
Oswego County District Attorney Gregory Oakes said on Monday there was “not a sufficient legal basis to bring criminal charges against former-Governor Andrew Cuomo based upon the allegations of unwanted physical contact made by Virginia Limmiatis” in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner. The county, which contains Syracuse, was the last one investigating charges against Cuomo, meaning the former governor is not expected to face any criminal charges for sexual misconduct allegations.
“To be clear, this decision is based solely upon an assessment of the law and whether the People can establish a legally sufficient case under controlling precedent. In no way should this decision be interpreted as casting doubt upon the character or credibility of Ms. Limmiatis, or how harmful the acts she experienced were,” Oakes said, adding he found Limmiatis “reliable and reasonable.”
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Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, said the photos that Limmiatis alleged showed unwanted touching “demonstrat[ed] what a farce this has been from the beginning.”
“As now five DAs have verified, none of the accusations in Tish James’ fraud of a report have stood up to any level of real scrutiny. This has always been a political hit job to further the Attorney General’s own ambitions, which both reeks of prosecutorial misconduct and has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars. As we’ve said since the beginning, the truth will come out,” he added.
Rita Glavin, Cuomo’s attorney, added, “The photographic evidence that the AG’s report hid from the public indisputably showed that Governor Cuomo did not act improperly. Truth and the rule of law prevailed, not politics or mob mentality.”
But Mariann Wang, Limmiatis’s attorney, said Oakes’s decision not to press charges “does not mean Cuomo is ‘innocent.'”
“Not every violation of law results in a criminal prosecution. This decision does not mean Cuomo acted appropriately or lawfully towards Ms. Limmiatis or any of the other women who came forward, or that he didn’t cause them significant harm,” she said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
In May 2017, Limmiatis, who has worked in crisis communications for an unnamed company since 2010, attended an event at New York’s Salmon River, where Cuomo “walked right up close to [her] and he put his finger on [her] shirt and went across [her] chest, [her] breasts, going from letter to letter to letter” before whispering in her ear, “I’m going to say that I see a spider on your shoulder,” Limmiatis alleged in June 2021 testimony to Attorney General Letitia James’s office.
Several other counties in New York have opened criminal investigations into Cuomo, only to announce that their findings did not meet the standards needed to pursue criminal charges. Nassau County’s district attorney announced on Dec. 23, 2021, that Cuomo would not be charged for allegedly inappropriately touching a state trooper in September 2019, and Westchester County’s district attorney followed suit, saying on Dec. 28 that it would not prosecute the former governor despite the “credible” nature of claims of sexual misconduct that allegedly occurred in Mount Kisco.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple announced he had filed a criminal complaint against Cuomo for forcible touching in October 2021, only for District Attorney David Soares to drop the charges, which he had deemed “potentially defective” in November, on Jan. 4.
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On Aug. 3, 2021, James released a bombshell report following a civil investigation that detailed the claims of 11 women, including Limmiatis, prompting Cuomo, who denied all allegations of unwanted touching, to step down on Aug. 24. Despite stepping down, Cuomo has repeatedly railed against James’s “unjust” report, and the two former political allies have been verbally sparring ever since.
