New York Post By Bernadette Hogan and Ben Feuerherd
An assistant to Gov. Andrew Cuomo who has accused him of groping her while they took a selfie together has filed the first criminal complaint against him tied to the findings of a damning investigation by the state attorney general’s office, The Post has learned.
The victim, who was identified as “Executive Assistant #1,” in Attorney General Letitia James’ sexual harassment report, filed the complaint during a brief Thursday afternoon meeting with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, which has since contacted the Albany County District Attorney’s office, Sheriff Craig Apple told The Post.
Apple said it’s possible the governor could be arrested if the allegations are substantiated.
“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,” he added.
The unidentified victim lodged the most serious accusation against the governor detailed in AG James’ report, alleging he pulled her in for a hug, reached under her blouse and fondled one of her breasts in the Executive Mansion in Albany on Nov. 16.
“I mean it was—he was like cupping my breast. He cupped my breast,” the woman told investigators on AG James’ team.
“I have to tell you it was—at the moment I was in such shock that I could just tell you that I just remember looking down seeing his hand, seeing the top of my bra and I remember it was like a little even the cup—the kind of bra that I had to the point I could tell you doesn’t really fit me properly, it was a little loose, I just remember seeing exactly that,” she added, according to the report.
An attorney to the governor referred the allegation to the Albany Police in March after the Albany Times Union reported details about the alleged abuse.
“As we said previously, we proactively made a referral nearly four months ago in accordance with state policies,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said Friday in a statement.
In a written response to AG James’ report, Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin detailed his busy schedule on Nov. 16 — the day the report states the groping took place — as evidence the governor was too preoccupied to have time to grope someone in the mansion.
The accuser, however, told the Times Union that the incident took place on another day around Nov. 16 when she had gone to the mansion to help the governor send a text message from his phone to Stephanie Benton, the director of the governor’s office. The woman told sheriff’s investigators on Thursday that telephone records of Cuomo and Benton could pinpoint the precise day on which that text was sent, the paper reported.
The woman also told investigators that Cuomo groped her after asking her to snap selfies inside his office at the Executive Mansion on Dec. 31, 2019.
As she took the photo, Cuomo “moved his hand to grab her butt cheek and began to rub it” for at least five seconds, the AG report alleges.
The victim was shaking uncontrollably during the interaction, so much so that the first photos she took were blurry, the report states.
Cuomo then sternly warned her not to share the photo she took with anyone, the woman told investigators.
She added that she badly wanted to tell someone about the unwanted touching, but was terrified that she would lose her job if she did, the report states.
She was specifically concerned she’d be fired if senior Cuomo aides Melissa DeRosa and Stephanie Benton heard that she had told someone about the alleged groping.
“If Stephanie Benton or Melissa [DeRosa] heard that, I was going to lose my job. Because I knew that I certainly was going to be the one to go,” she told probers.
