Andrew Cuomo Agrees to Sit and Be Grilled by NY Trooper Over Alleged Sexual Harassment
June 14 2023, Published 3:45 p.m. ET
Andrew Cuomo will be deposed in the sexual harassment case involving a female New York State trooper. RadarOnline.com has obtained the legal documents that reveal the disgraced ex-governor has agreed to sit and be grilled about the alleged incident on August 23, where he will have the opportunity to tell his side of the story.
In the documents filed on Tuesday, the attorney representing the trooper told the judge that both parties have "agreed upon August 23, 2023 for his [Cuomo's] deposition."
As RadarOnline.com reported, Cuomo and his former aide Melissa DeRosa were sued by the trooper — whose name has not been disclosed — in February 2022. She accused the ex-politician of violating her civil rights and his “right-hand” woman [DeRosa] of helping to cover up the alleged incident.
DeRosa’s attorney, Paul Schectman, called the lawsuit “beyond frivolous.” He claimed his client only spoke to the trooper to say "hello and goodbye." Cuomo, too, denied the allegations against him.
Cuomo vehemently denies "all the allegations of harassments against him," his rep Rich Azzopardi told RadarOnline.com in a statement.
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According to the legal complaint, the trooper claimed that “the Governor intentionally touched her in intimate locations between her breasts and vagina” on September 23, 2019. At the time, Cuomo's alleged victim was serving as one of his bodyguards at the Belmont racetrack.
“As Trooper 1 went ahead of the Governor to hold a door open for him, the Governor placed the palm of his hand on her belly button and slid it across her waist to her right hip, where her gun was holstered,” the complaint continued.
The trooper also accused Cuomo and his former aide of attempting to silence her. The alleged victim's attorney, Valdi Licul, told RadarOnline.com at the time that his client would "not be bullied into silence by Cuomo or his enablers. The ex-Governor has continued to follow the harasser’s playbook of shaming and attacking his victims by falsely accusing Trooper 1 and our firm of extortion simply because she asserted her legal rights.
"This behavior is precisely why women are so often afraid to speak out against their harassers and why our client has asked the Court to proceed anonymously in order to protect her safety.”
She's asking the court to award her damages for “severe mental anguish and emotional distress,” attorney fees, and a declaratory judgment that Cuomo, DeRosa, and state police violated civil laws on a federal, state, and city level prohibiting sexual harassment.
The trooper's accusations came after Cuomo resigned from office in October 2021, when Attorney General Letitia James' investigation found he had sexually harassed multiple former and current female state employees.