Patricia Hurtado and Keshia Clukey
(Bloomberg) – The Albany County Sheriff said he had a “solid case” against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was charged with a sex crime two months after he stepped down from office.
“We have an overwhelming amount of evidence,” Sheriff Craig Apple said at a news conference on Friday. Apple said its office had been conducting a “methodological” investigation for nearly four months that included search warrants, data collection, numerous witness interviews and the review of thousands of documents.
Cuomo was charged by the sheriff’s office on Thursday of violently touching his hand or placing his hand under the blouse of an unidentified woman and groping her at the governor’s mansion on December 7th. He was ordered to appear in Albany City Court on November 17th.
Cuomo resigned in August after Attorney General Letitia James released a report describing a pattern of alleged harassment against female civil servants and other women. Several local prosecutors, including Albany District Attorney David Soares, said at the time they were opening a criminal investigation.
“Special” Claims
Cuomo officials have harshly criticized the sheriff for failing to coordinate the criminal complaint with Soares, who said Thursday he was “surprised” by the filing.
“What Sheriff Apple didn’t say today is that the allegation is completely unconfirmed and has been evolving since March,” Cuomo’s attorney Rita Glavin said in a statement Friday. “What Sheriff Apple said about a ‘separate’ prosecutor’s investigation with ‘our victim’ speaks volumes about his stated objectivity.”
Glavin said Cuomo never attacked anyone and that filing the indictment the day before James announced her candidacy for governorship suggested “the heavy hand of politics”. She said Cuomo would “challenge every aspect of the flimsy, inconsistent and unconfirmed allegations against him.”
Read more: New York AG Letitia James announces that she will run for governor
James has defended her investigation.
“From the moment my office received the referral to investigate allegations that former Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually molested several women, we have acted without fear or courtesy,” she said in a statement Thursday. “The violent touching charges brought against Mr Cuomo today further corroborate the findings in our report.”
“Non-political organization”
Apple said at the press conference that a document had been leaked summarizing the evidence against Cuomo that its office had sent to Albany City Court for review. Otherwise, he said, he would have discussed the matter with Soares before proceeding and notified Glavin.
The sheriff said he would likely meet with prosecutors next week to hand over the case and was confident that Soares would continue the indictment. He said the confusion caused by the leak did not reflect the quality of the case.
“We knew everyone would be watching this investigation,” Apple said. “We try to conduct every single investigation the same way, and our ultimate goal is to protect people and protect victims and complainers.” He said the sheriff’s office was “an apolitical organization”.
Soares’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday afternoon.
Disgraceful end
James’ report put Cuomo’s decades of political career to a shameful end just months after it appeared to have peaked. Cuomo was widely acclaimed for his daily press conferences during the early months of the pandemic and was seen as a possible future Democratic presidential candidate.
However, James’ investigation found that he violated several state and state harassment laws on charges made by prosecutors who said Cuomo hugged, kissed, touched and asked about her sex life without being asked. He is even reported to have asked a woman to play strip poker on a government plane.
Cuomo has admitted being “too familiar” with people but has denied sexually molesting or groping someone. Glavin called James’ report biased and politically motivated and asked for a fresh investigation into his behavior earlier this month.
With his resignation, Cuomo avoided what was likely to be a protracted impeachment procedure in the state parliament, in which there were constitutional obstacles to the impeachment of a governor who was no longer in office.
For Cuomo, it also meant he could legally run for office again, and some have suggested that he might seek a political comeback. But if convicted of a felony or misdemeanor, the New York State Unified Court System website bans him from holding public office in New York.
When Cuomo appears in court next month, it will be processed and likely released, Apple said.
The case is People v. Cuomo, Albany City Court (Albany, New York).
(Updates with more details from the press conference in section three.)
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