A onetime aide to former New York governor Andrew Cuomo sued him on Wednesday, saying he sexually harassed her after which smeared her popularity after she grew to become the second lady to publicly accuse him of misconduct.
Charlotte Bennett’s lawsuit, filed in a federal court docket in New York Metropolis, repeats most of the allegations she has talked about publicly within the 12 months and a half since she first started telling her story.
She stated the governor subjected her to undesirable advances, together with telling her he was “lonely” and on the hunt for a girlfriend and asking her if she can be open to intercourse with an older man.
The lawsuit is at the very least the second to be filed by one of many a number of ladies who accused Cuomo of sexual harassment earlier than the scandal led to his resignation final summer season. Bennett has additionally sued three Cuomo aides.
The go well with seeks unspecified damages, saying Bennett skilled near-debilitating nervousness, signs of melancholy and a neurological dysfunction after a barrage of inappropriate feedback by the governor spoiled her job as a well being coverage adviser within the governor’s administration.
In a press release, Cuomo’s lawyer Rita Glavin stated Cuomo “has at all times stated he didn’t harass anybody and with every day that goes by increasingly more info is uncovered displaying how proof favorable to the governor was suppressed and essential info ignored or omitted that undermined witness credibility”.
“We’ll see them in court docket,” she added.
Cuomo resigned after New York’s lawyer normal launched the outcomes of an investigation that concluded Cuomo had sexually harassed at the very least 11 ladies, together with Bennett.
These ladies had informed of being subjected to undesirable kisses and touches, or inappropriate feedback about their seems to be and their intercourse lives. One aide filed a prison grievance alleging that Cuomo had groped her breast. The cost was later dropped by the Albany district lawyer, who cited a scarcity of proof. Cuomo denied the allegation.
Bennett performed a vital position in Cuomo’s downfall. On the time she got here ahead together with her accusations, just one different lady, Lindsey Boylan, had spoken publicly about being harassed by the governor.
By including her voice, Bennett emboldened different ladies to talk up.
“I used to be actually scared to return ahead,” Bennett later informed the Related Press. “However one thing that reassured me even in that second of worry was that there have been ladies earlier than me ... [it wasn’t] Charlotte versus the governor, however a motion, transferring ahead. And I'm one small occasion and one small piece of reckoning with sexual misconduct, in workplaces and elsewhere.”
When Bennett initially informed her story to the New York Occasions, Cuomo appeared to acknowledge that he had harm her with feedback inappropriate for a office, however denied that he was making sexual advances. He claimed Bennett had misinterpreted his feedback.
Bennett, who turned 25 when she labored for Cuomo, stated she had little doubt that Cuomo’s feedback, a few of which have been delivered in a whisper, have been supposed to probe her curiosity in a sexual relationship.
Bennett’s lawsuit got here a day after Cuomo filed an ethics grievance in opposition to New York lawyer normal Letitia James, claiming the sexual harassment investigation she launched in opposition to the governor was biased and supposed to drive him from workplace.
In February, Cuomo was sued by a New York state police trooper who stated Cuomo subjected her to sexual remarks and every now and then ran his hand or fingers throughout her abdomen and her again.
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