Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is being sued for sexual harassment by a state trooper following a recent string of legal victories that saw all charges against him dismissed.
Cuomo asked the unidentified trooper personal questions while she was on duty, kissed her on the cheek, and “placed the palm of his hand on her belly button and slid it across her waist to her right hip” while she was on duty in 2019, according to a Thursday filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York seeking a declaratory judgment that Cuomo and others violated both federal and local laws and assorted economic damages.
“As a direct and proximate result of the unlawful conduct, Plaintiff has suffered, and continues to suffer, severe mental anguish and emotional distress, including, but not limited to, humiliation, embarrassment, stress and anxiety, loss of self-esteem and self-confidence, and emotional pain and suffering for which she is entitled to an award of monetary damages and other relief,” the lawsuit alleges.
LAST NEW YORK COUNTY INVESTIGATING CUOMO DECLINES TO PRESS CHARGES
Cuomo touched the trooper inappropriately, in one instance “plac[ing] a finger on Trooper 1’s neck and [running] it slowly down her spine to the middle of her back,” the filing alleges.
“Trooper 1 felt violated as the Governor intentionally touched her in intimate locations between her breasts and vagina,” the lawsuit says.
The filing also names Melissa DeRosa, a onetime top Cuomo aide, as a defendant, stating she “was specifically involved in hiding the Governor’s behavior.”
“On May 19, 2021, Trooper 1 engaged in protected activity when she testified in an official investigation of the Governor’s sexual harassment of her and other women … On or around November 12, 2021, DeRosa retaliated against Trooper 1 by falsely accusing Trooper 1 of ‘extortion’ and threatening legal action,” the lawsuit says, accusing her of pressuring news outlets not to cover the allegations against the then governor in late 2020.
Valdi Licul, partner at Wigdor LLP and counsel for the trooper, said the team would not be “deterred” by Cuomo’s “bullying tactics,” adding the former governor “is only making his legal problems worse by lashing out at his victim with false and defamatory statements intended to further retaliate against her.”
“Given the threats and victim-shaming that Trooper 1 has faced after she testified truthfully about being sexually harassed in the workplace by the former Governor, she has made the decision to proceed with this lawsuit anonymously with the hope that she can vindicate her legal rights and move on with her life,” Licul continued in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, slammed the filing.
“This claim relies on the AG’s proven fraud of a report, as demonstrated by the five district attorneys who, one by one — Democrat and Republican — looked at its findings and found no violations of law … This law firm is widely known to use the press to extort settlements on behalf of ‘anonymous claimants’ — that is Un-American and will not happen here,” he said in an email to the Washington Examiner. “Gov. Cuomo will fight every attempt at cheap cash extortions and is anxious to have the dirty politics stop — we look forward to justice in a court of law.”
Until Thursday’s legal action, Cuomo had been cleared legally of all allegations. On Jan. 31, the Oswego County district attorney became the latest to decline to press charges against the former governor following December 2020 decisions from Nassau County and Westchester County not to pursue Cuomo over allegations of sexual misconduct. Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple initially announced he had filed a criminal complaint against Cuomo for forcible touching in October 2021, but District Attorney David Soares then dropped the “potentially defective” charges on Jan. 4.
An attorney for one of Cuomo’s accusers stressed that the standards for criminal and civil prosecutions differ, noting that many investigators found allegations against the former governor credible if not criminally actionable.
“The fact that this matter is not being criminally prosecuted does not mean Cuomo is ‘innocent’ … Not every violation of law results in a criminal prosecution,” the attorney for the accuser in the Oswego County case said last month.
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On Aug. 3, 2021, James released a bombshell report following a civil investigation that detailed the claims of 11 women, prompting Cuomo, who denied all allegations of unwanted touching, to resign 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.
