Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been charged with a misdemeanor crime of forcible touching in connection with an incident with a staffer at the governor’s mansion last December.
A spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, Lucian Chalfen, confirms that a misdemeanor complaint against former Governor Andrew Cuomo has been filed in Albany City Court.
The complaint, filed by an Albany County Sherriff’s investigator, says Cuomo, on December 7th, 2020, at around 4 PM “did knowingly and intentionally commit the Class A Misdemeanor of Forcible Touching” . The complaint says Cuomo “ forcibly place(d) his hand under the blouse of the victim, and onto her intimate body parts” for the purposes of degrading (the victim) and “gratifying his sexual desires.”
In August, Albany County Sherriff Craig Apple confirmed that his office was investigating a criminal complaint from the former governor’s staffer, Brittany Commisso, who accused Cuomo of forcibly groping her under her shirt when she visited him at the governor’s mansion to help him fix a problem with his phone.
In early August, a report by state Attorney General Tish James found Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women, including Commisso.
Cuomo denied that he sexually harassed or assaulted anyone, but resigned from office on August 24th.
In August, Commisso was interviewed by CBS This Morning, and the Albany Times Union, where she spoke to CBS’s Jericka Duncan about the incident.
“Why did you file that criminal complaint with the Sherriff’s office?’ Duncan asks.
“It was the right thing to do,” Commisso answers. “The governor needs to be held accountable.”
Duncan then asks whether being held accountable means seeing the governor charged with a crime.
“What he did to me was a crime,” Commisso answer. “He broke the law”.
A spokesman for the former Governor did not immediately respond. The Albany County DA and Sherriff have also not yet spoken publicly about the charges.
State Attorney General Letitia James, however, did release a statement.
“From the moment my office received the referral to investigate allegations that former Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, we proceeded without fear or favor," James said. "The criminal charges brought today against Mr. Cuomo for forcible touching further validate the findings in our report.”
