Assistant To Andrew Cuomo Files A Criminal Complaint Against Him Over Alleged Groping Incident

 

Governor's mansion in Albany

While allegedly harassing women, Cuomo also abused state resources

Alphonso David claims he was unaware of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's sexual misconduct behavior as his counsel from 2015 to 2019.[photo: Hans Pennink] 

‘Lizard People … Your Time Is Up’: After Cuomo Report, McGowan Blasts Biden, Milano, Time’s Up Movement

Assistant To Cuomo Files Criminal Complaint Over Alleged Groping Incident In Governor's Mansion

BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ

AUG. 6, 2021 11:42 A.M.

 • 47 COMMENTS

An assistant to Governor Andrew Cuomo who accused him of groping her inside the Executive Mansion has filed a complaint with the Albany County Sheriff, raising the possibility of criminal charges for the embattled governor.

The executive assistant told investigators for the New York Attorney General that Cuomo repeatedly harassed her, culminating in an incident in which the governor reached under her blouse and grabbed her breast in November of last year.

The woman, who is still employed by the state, filed a criminal complaint about the alleged sexual assault on Thursday afternoon, according to a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office. It comes two days after the Attorney General's report detailed a pattern of sexual misconduct by Cuomo, and is believed to be the first criminal complaint brought by one of the governor's alleged victims.

Following the release of the report, five prosecutors in New York — in Manhattan, Nassau County, Westchester, Oswego, and Albany — have indicated that they are looking into potential unlawful behavior by the governor.

Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple told the Post, which first reported the story, that it's possible Cuomo could face arrest. “The end result could either be it sounds substantiated and an arrest is made and it would be up to the DA to prosecute the arrest,” he said. “Just because of who it is we are not going to rush it or delay it.”

The governor has denied touching any woman inappropriately and has said that he would welcome legal action from the executive assistant. Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, said that the Governor’s Office “proactively” referred the alleged groping incident to authorities nearly four months ago, “in accordance with state policies.”

In her testimony to investigators, the executive assistant alleged that Cuomo repeatedly grabbed her butt during hugs and kissed her on the lips on at least one occasion. Last November, she said, Cuomo pulled her in for a close hug, then cupped her breast.

“I knew what just went on,” she testified. “I knew and he knew too that that was wrong. And that I, in no way, shape or form, invited that nor did I ask for it.”

She said she did not report the incident to her supervisors for fear that she would face retaliation — and had planned to take it “to the grave,” until hearing Cuomo claim at a press conference that he had never touched anyone inappropriately.

Investigators said that the woman's account was credible, while Cuomo's "denials lacked persuasiveness."

A lawyer for the woman could not be reached for comment.

A previous version of this story referred to the woman as a former executive assistant. She remains employed by the state, according to the Attorney General, though it's unclear in what capacity.

NYS Attorney General Finds Governor Andrew Cuomo Abused and Harassed Multiple Women. Cuomo Must Resign-and Does, August 10, 2021

 

Dani Lever (right) helped Gov. Andrew Cuomo leak confidential files about a woman who accused
him of sexual harassment, according to the attorney general’s bombshell investigation.

State Assembly Report Finds Cuomo Used State Resources to Enrich Himself

UPDATE: CUOMO RESIGNS AUGUST 10, 2021

Andrew Cuomo joins long list of big New York political scandals

Former NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo

Previously:

Top Cuomo aide DeRosa emerges as enforcer, enabler in AG’s sex harass report

Cuomo top aide Melissa DeRosa resigns as governor faces potential impeachment

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo must resign or be impeached. His brother Chris Cuomo should be fired from CNN. We do not believe that giving Gov. Cuomo "a second chance" or a minute more in office will do anything but create more harm and endanger the lives of many. He must go. Now.

Chris Cuomo of CNN appears in report on Governor Cuomo’s behavior.

REPORT OF INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT BY GOVERNOR ANDREW M. CUOMO 

Andrew Cuomo’s utterly disastrous response to the AG report findings

Cuomo violated federal, state laws as he sexually harassed multiple women, NY attorney general says

'A distraction': Democratic chairs in Cayuga, other NY counties want Cuomo to resign

National Public Voice posts previously published on Andrew Cuomo

Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, Advocatz.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

Facebook executive helped Cuomo smear sex-harassment accuser: AG report

Autumn Johnson

August 5th, 2021

Facebook Executive Dani Lever reportedly helped Gov. Andrew Cuomo fight sexual assault allegations by leaking confidential messages about an accuser.

Lever worked on Cuomo’s press team from 2014 to 2020, then leaving to join Facebook as communications manager.

The New York Attorney General’s bombshell report revealed that Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo communications director, sent Lindsey Boylan's confidential personnel files to several journalists in what investigators called an attempt to “discredit and disparage” her. 

The report concluded that Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women in violation of state and federal law and indicated that Lever helped Cuomo’s team disseminate the files.

“Ms. Lever coordinated with some of the reporters who received the documents to let them know that the Executive Chamber would be sending them,” the report reads. 

The report adds that Lever was part of a “team of advisors from within and outside the Chamber [who] had ongoing and regular discussions about how to respond to the allegations publicly,” including Cuomo’s brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo.

“None of them was officially retained in any capacity by the Executive Chamber or any of the individuals involved,” the report notes of Lever, Chris Cuomo, and other outside advisors. “Nonetheless, they were regularly provided with confidential and often privileged information about state operations and helped make decisions that impacted State business and employees — all without any formal role, duty, or obligation to the State.”

“Ms. Lever coordinated with some of the reporters who received the documents to let them know that the Executive Chamber would be sending them,” the report reads. 

The report adds that Lever was part of a “team of advisors from within and outside the Chamber [who] had ongoing and regular discussions about how to respond to the allegations publicly,” including Cuomo’s brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo.

“None of them was officially retained in any capacity by the Executive Chamber or any of the individuals involved,” the report notes of Lever, Chris Cuomo, and other outside advisors. “Nonetheless, they were regularly provided with confidential and often privileged information about state operations and helped make decisions that impacted State business and employees — all without any formal role, duty, or obligation to the State.”

Lever’s name is mentioned 25 times in the report.

Ironically, Lever initially declined to sign on to a letter that included complaints against Boylan as well as her interactions with co-workers. Lever said the letter amounted to “victim shaming,” but later signed a different statement in support of Cuomo that denied Boylan’s allegations.

Cuomo is no stranger to heinous acts, committing seniors who tested positive for COVID-19 to nursing homes, resulting in the deaths of thousands.

Cuomo attorneys push back on Boylan retaliation claims following sex harass report

Former NY State Governor George Pataki Says Gov. Cuomo's Nursing Home Strategy is a 'Disaster'

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (left) and former New York Gov. George Pataki                                           Kevin C. Downs & Annie Wermiel for New York Post

UPDATE:
 On May 11, 2020 the news reports in New York headlined a Cuomo switch where the Governor reversed his nursing home policy - namely, sending residents who have tested positive back to the same place:

See NBC: "We're just not going to send a person who is positive to a nursing home after a hospital visit"

I have posted several articles about the Cuomo nursing home scandal and funeral home tragedy previously (See here, here, here), and now we see this issue is getting political.

Former New York State Governor George Pataki is a Republican. Andrew Cuomo is a Democrat. It is quite possible that supporters of Andrew Cuomo will create a media moment that is based upon partisan interests. This would be a terrible mistake. Political interests need to stay away from the terrible scandals following both Cuomo and his fellow Democrat NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio (see here as well as posts about Bill's wife Chirlane McCray).

Treating the dead as trash is a human tragedy that transcends politics.

Betsy Combier, betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, ADVOCATZ.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials 

Cuomo’s nursing home policies amid coronavirus ‘a disaster,’ says ex-Gov. Pataki

by Carl Campanile, NY POST May 1, 2020

Former Gov. George Pataki slammed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s nursing home policies during the coronavirus pandemic as a “disaster” that may have unnecessarily caused the deaths of “thousands” of vulnerable elderly residents.

In a rare swipe at his successor Friday night, Pataki called for an independent probe “so this never happens again.”

Pataki said the state Health Department should never have issued an edict requiring nursing homes to accept coronavirus virus patients into nursing home facilities filled with sick, elderly patients — the population most at risk from the killer COVID-19 bug.

Compounding the misguided policy, Pataki said, is that the nursing homes lacked the personal protective equipment or testing capability to isolate and contain the spread of COVID-19.

Pataki also said he was dumbfounded as to why infected patients were sent to nursing homes instead of “hundreds of unused beds” at the two temporary hospitals at the Javits Center and the Navy’s USNS Comfort hospital ship.

“Gov. Cuomo’s handling of the nursing homes has been a disaster,” Pataki, the former-three term governor, told The Post.

“Thousands of people's lives might not have been lost except for these tragic policies.”

Pataki, a Republican who served between 1995 and 2006 said, “Everybody knew that the most vulnerable population was senior citizens. And the most vulnerable senior citizens are in nursing homes.”

Pataki said the nursing homes didn’t have adequate personal protective equipment to protect their existing staff and patients.

“To compound the problem, the state-required nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients. Anyone should have known this would be a problem — to require nursing homes to take in coronavirus patients,” he said.

He also rapped Cuomo for saying “it’s not our job” to provide masks and gowns to nursing homes, though state officials were doing so.

“It is the executive’s job,” Pataki said.

Pataki also said the nursing homes didn’t have or were not provided with the testing needed to determine which patients or staff had the virus.

He also cited a Post report that revealed the state Health Department allowed nurses and other staff who tested positive for the coronavirus to continue treating COVID-19 patients at an upstate nursing home. Following the report, the department said it implemented a new policy restricting COVID-positive staff from returning to work for 14 days.

“Any way you look at it …This is inexcusable. There’s no defense for this,” Pataki said of the policies.

He mentioned Cuomo has become one of the “most popular politicians in America” because of his press briefings on COVID-19.

Still, “it’s not about the appearance but the function of the office,” Pataki said. “The buck stops with the executive office.”

Pataki later went on Fox News and called Cuomo’s policies “incomprehensible” and a “disgrace.”

Cuomo’s senior adviser Rich Azzopardi returned fire, calling Pataki’s attacks a “sad, sad bid for relevancy.”

“It is sad and unfortunate that his star has fallen so much that he’s willing to go on TV and misrepresent the state policy,” which is based on US Centers for Disease Control guidelines, Azzopardi said.

Azzopardi reiterated prior statements from the governor that the nursing homes can only accept coronavirus patients if they have a safe facility with proper staffing and protective equipment.

Cuomo officials also parried widespread complaints of inadequate PPE, saying the state delivered 2 million pieces of protective equipment to nursing homes.

He also said federal policy restricted patients sent to the Comfort hospital.

“George Pataki doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He hasn’t had a clue in 20 years,” Azzopardi said.

Cuomo and Pataki have a complicated relationship.

Pataki defeated former three-term governor Mario Cuomo — Andrew’s dad — to become the state’s chief executive, in 1994.

Andrew Cuomo came under fire during his first bid for governor in 2002 when he said then-Gov. Pataki would just “hold the coat” of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in terms of leadership following the Sept. 11 attacks. He later abandoned his campaign before the Democratic primary.

But when Cuomo did win the governorship nearly a decade later, he appointed Pataki to serve and co-chair  on a panel that recommended tax cuts. Pataki has generally refrained from second-guessing Cuomo’s actions.