A former aide to ex-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who beforehand claimed Cuomo groped her breast, is submitting a lawsuit in opposition to him alleging sexual harassment and abuse, in response to a summons filed this week.
Brittany Commisso, one in every of 11 ladies whose claims of harassment had been substantiated by an August 2021 report by the state’s attorney general, is submitting go well with in opposition to the previous governor beneath New York’s Grownup Survivors Act, alleging “pervasive abusive conduct” and “steady sexual harassment” throughout her employment as his assistant, in response to the summons filed Wednesday in Albany County Supreme Court docket.
Six months after it was signed in Might 2022, the state legislation opened a one-year window for grownup survivors of sexual offenses to sue their alleged abusers, even when the statute of limitations on their claims had expired.
Cuomo is one in every of a number of high-profile figures who was sued within the winnowing hours earlier than the legislation was set to run out Thursday at midnight.
The previous governor has repeatedly and vehemently denied Commisso’s claims. His lawyer Friday calling the lawsuit an tried “money seize.”
“Ms. Commisso’s claims are provably false, which is why the Albany District Lawyer dismissed the case two years in the past after an intensive investigation,” Cuomo lawyer Rita Glavin advised CNN in a press release. “Ms. Commisso’s clear try at a money seize will fail. We sit up for seeing her in court docket.”
The summons lists Cuomo, the State of New York, and one other former Cuomo aide as defendants and is in search of damages for the “substantial private accidents and financial loss plaintiff suffered.”
State report triggered Cuomo’s resignation
Commisso was one of many ladies who spoke to investigators employed by New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James’ workplace to research allegations of sexual misconduct by the previous governor. The report triggered the eventual resignation of Cuomo, which he introduced on August 10, 2021, per week after it was launched.
Based on the state’s report, Commisso advised investigators Cuomo grabbed her buttocks throughout hugs and a photograph. The report additionally detailed an allegation, beforehand reported by the Albany Occasions Union, of an incident on the governor’s mansion during which Cuomo allegedly reached beneath her shirt and grabbed her breast.
In January 2022, an Albany Metropolis Court docket dismissed the forcible touching criticism after the district lawyer declined to pursue it. After the county sheriff’s workplace filed the misdemeanor cost in opposition to Cuomo, Albany District Lawyer David Soares filed a letter saying the cost was “unattainable to show past an inexpensive doubt in legal court docket” regardless of discovering Commisso “credible.”
The summons filed by Commisso this week says the previous governor’s conduct allegedly included “unwelcome sexual advances” and “sexual feedback” about her look and private life. It additionally accuses Cuomo of assigning “humiliating and demeaning duties, hugs, kisses,” in addition to the incidents of sexual misconduct detailed within the 2021 state report.
It additionally claims she was topic to “objectively unreasonable and abusive” conduct, which she believed she was “required to endure to take care of her employment.”
The summons alleges Commisso suffered retaliation after rejecting Cuomo’s try to have interaction in sexual acts, and for later reporting the conduct.
Commisso claims she was demoted by the then lieutenant governor, now governor, Kathy Hochul, faraway from the entrance workplace, and moved to the “demeaning activity of answering telephones” for Hochul’s workplace, in response to the doc.
Gov. Hochul just isn’t a named defendant within the go well with however is referenced within the summons description.
A spokesperson for Hochul, Avi Small, advised CNN in a press release: “The declare relating to then-Lieutenant Governor Hochul is clearly a mistake, as she had no management over Govt Chamber personnel selections. We are able to solely assume this allegation is an error within the preparation of the summons.”
The State of New York is listed as a defendant, and CNN has reached out for remark.
In the meantime, Politico – citing eight individuals who have talked to him or his internal circle – reported this week that Cuomo was gauging how viable a possible mayoral bid could be in opposition to the backdrop of a pending FBI investigation into New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams, which is focused on marketing campaign cash, favors and potential international affect.
Information of Cuomo’s reignited political aspirations surfaced earlier than Adams was accused of a 1993 sexual assault in a court docket doc filed beneath the identical Grownup Survivors Act.
Adams has repeatedly and firmly denied the accusation and says he doesn’t recall ever assembly the girl.
In a press release to CNN, Commisso mentioned: “It disgusts me that Andrew Cuomo is even contemplating operating for public workplace within the wake of Mayor [Eric] Adams’ alleged sexual harassment when he himself won’t settle for accountability and even acknowledge his sexual harassment of me, except for quite a few different victims, whereas the governor of our state.”
CNN’s Michelle Watson contributed to this report.
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