A New York State trooper who worked on former Governor Andrew Cuomo's security detail filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him on Thursday.
After being assigned to the elite Protective Service Unit in January 2018, the woman claimed that the governor "violated" her multiple times, according to the woman, who filed the action anonymously in Brooklyn Federal Court as "Trooper 1."
New York State Trooper Sues Andrew Cuomo
When she accompanied the former governor to an event at Belmont Racetrack on Sept. 23, 2019, the complaint claims he "put the palm of his hand on her belly button and pushed it around her waist to her right hip, where her revolver was holstered."
Cuomo spoke to the trooper about relationships five days after the event, according to the complaint. According to the lawsuit, the governor questioned Trooper 1 her age, and when she replied that she was in her late 20s, he stated, "You're too old for me."
The governor stated someone who "can tolerate pain" when she inquired what prerequisites he would have for someone he dated, according to the claim. Melissa DeRosa, a former top staffer to Cuomo, is also named as a defendant in the case for her claimed participation in concealing up the harassment, New York Daily News reported.
The trooper claims Cuomo asked about her relationship status a few days after the incident, "obviously spurred by the now-public knowledge that he had split up with his girlfriend," and requested for the trooper's ad, according to the lawsuit. Cuomo allegedly tried to kiss her, led talks towards sex, and made remarks about her beauty.
The trooper received a message from her unit's commander after the incident, telling her that the conversation would "remain in the vehicle," which she mistook for a "clear instruction that she does not divulge to anybody the Governor's improper statement."
Trooper Alleges Sexual Harassment Against Former Governor
The event was revealed in Attorney General Letitia James' explosive sexual harassment report, which drove Cuomo to leave in August 2021, but the Nassau County District Attorney's Office declined to charge him. According to the lawsuit, DeRosa hid the governor's actions by lying to a reporter from The Albany Times Union about how the trooper was assigned to the governor's security detail.
After James' research corroborated or found 11 women sexually abused or mistreated by Cuomo, he resigned in August 2021. None of the complaints against him have resulted in a criminal inquiry; all of them were withdrawn by DAs who concluded the allegations lacked adequate legal support and that his behavior was wrong but not unlawful, as per New York Post.
The governor reportedly asked the trooper if he may kiss her when she was working outside of his Mount Kisco home in 2019, according to the complaint. The trooper answered yes since she didn't want to upset him and was afraid of reprisal. According to the complaint, Cuomo then kissed her on the cheek "despite knowing that it was against the regulations for him to do so."
Later that year, while traveling to an event, Cuomo questioned the trooper why she wasn't wearing a dress. She said that carrying her rifle in a frock would have been impossible. She has dressed adequately, according to the Director of the Protective Service Unit, in her professional clothing. Later, the PSU chief reportedly texted the trooper, telling her to "remain in-vehicle," which the complaint alleged that it was "a clear instruction that she not divulge the Governor's improper statement to anybody."
The complaint claims that the attorney general's probe, the state legislature's Judiciary Committee's investigation, and other women's allegations against Cuomo all indicate a pattern of behavior.
Melissa DeRosa's attorney, Paul Schectman, contested the claims against her. The harassment allegedly lasted until 2021, according to the lawsuit. On at least one occasion, the trooper claims, the governor embraced her and offered her "unwanted attention," according to CBS News.
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