© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo makes an announcement as he proclaims he’ll resign on this display seize taken from a video launched by the Workplace of the NY Governor, in New York, U.S., August 10, 2021. Workplace of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo/Handout vi
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A prison grievance charging former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo with a misdemeanor intercourse offense has been filed in a court docket in Albany, the state’s capital, a spokesman for the New York state courts stated on Thursday.
“As it is a intercourse crime, a redacted grievance might be obtainable shortly,” the spokesman, Lucian Chalfen, stated in an emailed assertion.
Representatives for Cuomo, 63, who resigned from workplace over two months in the past below mounting authorized pressures and calls for for his ouster from President Joe Biden and others, weren’t instantly obtainable for remark.
A replica of the grievance posted on-line by WNBC-TV in New York stated Cuomo engaged within the misdemeanor offense of “forcible touching” on Dec. 7, 2020, on the governor’s Govt Mansion by inserting “his hand below the shirt shirt of the sufferer … and onto her intimate physique half.”
The grievance goes on to say that Cuomo fondled the girl’s breast “for functions of degrading and gratifying his sexual needs,” however the identify of the girl has been redacted.
The week previous to his resignation, Brittany Commisso filed a prison report with the Albany County Sheriff’s Workplace alleging that the then-governor of groped her breast on the Govt Mansion in Albany late final yr.
The New York Publish stated Cuomo was anticipated to be arrested subsequent week and charged with a misdemeanor within the alleged groping of a former aide.
It stated the anticipated cost resulted from a probe by Albany County District Lawyer David Soares, citing a supply briefed on the matter.
Soares’ workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Cuomo resigned as governor in August after over 10 years in workplace, following a probe https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-york-governor-cuomo-resigns-after-sexual-harassment-findings-2021-08-10 that discovered he had sexually harassed 11 girls.
New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James stated a five-month impartial investigation concluded that Cuomo had engaged in conduct that violated federal and state legal guidelines.
“The prison costs introduced right this moment in opposition to Mr. Cuomo for forcible touching additional validate the findings in our report,” James stated in an announcement on Thursday.
The previous Democratic governor has lengthy denied wrongdoing, although he has stated he accepted “full duty” for what he referred to as ill-conceived makes an attempt to be affectionate or humorous.
Cuomo’s resignation capped a months-long downfall, derailing the political profession of a person as soon as thought-about a doable U.S. presidential contender, and whose each day briefings early within the COVID-19 pandemic raised his nationwide profile.
Cuomo’s resignation spared him from doable elimination from workplace by way of impeachment proceedings within the state legislature, which appeared doubtless though that physique is dominated by fellow Democrats.
The impartial investigation discovered that Cuomo groped, kissed or made improperly suggestive feedback to girls, together with present and former authorities staff, and retaliated in opposition to a minimum of one girl who accused him of sexual misconduct.
Like his father Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo was elected to 3 four-year phrases as governor.
He was hailed as a nationwide chief final yr on the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic after delivering each day information conferences as his state grew to become the U.S. epicenter of the general public well being disaster.
