Like Mr. Azzopardi, Paul Shechtman, a lawyer for Ms. DeRosa, was dismissive of the go well with.
“We’re solely conscious of this case from Twitter, however in keeping with the trooper’s personal testimony Melissa’s solely interplay together with her was to say ‘hiya and goodbye,’” Mr. Shechtman mentioned within the assertion. “It isn’t a viable case anyplace in America and is past frivolous.”
The go well with doesn’t make particular allegations towards the State Police, however accuses the company, together with Mr. Cuomo and Ms. DeRosa, of discrimination and retaliation. A Wigdor agency spokesman mentioned the company was named as a defendant as a result of it’s the trooper’s employer.
A State Police spokesman declined to remark, citing a coverage towards doing so in energetic litigation.
The trooper repeats in her go well with what she advised the lawyer normal’s investigators: that the governor started to flirt together with her shortly after they first met, that he spoke with senior members of his safety employees about having her be part of the protecting element, and that she was quickly given the coveted project.
Amongst different issues, the go well with says that at an occasion at Belmont Park, in Elmont, N.Y., in September 2019, Mr. Cuomo ran the palm of his hand over her navel and slid it throughout her waist to her proper hip, the place her gun was holstered. The act, the go well with says, made her really feel “violated.”
A senior State Police investigator “totally corroborated” the feminine trooper’s account of the episode, in keeping with the report that got here out of the lawyer normal’s inquiry.
Mr. Cuomo has persistently attacked the investigation overseen by Ms. James as a politically motivated train by a fellow Democrat who had her personal designs on the governor’s job. Ms. James introduced a run for governor in October, however deserted it a couple of weeks later. On Thursday, New York Democrats endorsed her bid for re-election this 12 months.