Cuomo’s legal team issues subpoenas for soldier groping trial

Lawyers for the disgraced ex-governor. Andrew Cuomo is bracing for a legal fight against a state trooper who accused him of groping her – issuing wide-ranging document demands following investigations by the state’s Attorney General, Letitia James, and the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

The Judiciary Committee conducted an impeachment inquiry into Cuomo and released a scathing report last November accusing him of being a sexual harasser who misused state resources while writing a self-congratulatory book during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Assembly panel received notice of a subpoena from Cuomo’s attorneys requesting all underlying documents collected as part of its investigation, legislative sources told the Post.

Assemblyman Charles Lavine (D-Nassau), chair of the panel, advised all members of the Judiciary Committee on July 7 to retain all documents in their possession after being contacted by attorneys, sources told the Post.

Lavine declined to comment.

Cuomo’s attorney, Rita Glavin, told the court that she would also subpoena all underlying documents from the attorney general’s office’s investigation of Cuomo as well as the Assembly.

It was James’ scathing investigative report last August that found Cuomo harassed or otherwise misled a large number of women who forced his resignation under threat of impeachment. He claimed his innocence and some criminal cases examined by prosecutors in trial and error cases have been dismissed.

“We expect litigation over the subpoenas we intend to issue to the New York State Attorney
Office of the General and the New York Assembly Judiciary Committee for all evidence gathered underlying their respective reports – on which the amended complaint makes numerous allegations, cites and relies heavily,” Glavin said in a statement. May 31 letter to Brooklyn Federal Judge Taryn Merkl.

The attorney general’s office said it is reviewing Cuomo’s subpoena.

Glavin, who declined to comment on Monday, previously complained that AG James and the Assembly refused to turn over underlying documents in their inquiries into the ousted three-term governor.

Private 1, who was then one of Cuomo’s bodyguards, accompanied him to an event at Belmont Racetrack on September 23, 2019, where « she felt violated as the Governor intentionally touched her in intimate places between her breasts and her vagina,” according to the lawsuit filed in Eastern District Court in February.

“As Private 1 walked past the Governor to hold a door open for him, the Governor placed the palm of his hand over his navel and slid it down his waist to his right hip, where his gun was stowed” , say his lawyers. .

Days after the incident, the trooper says Cuomo inquired about his relationship status, « clearly motivated by the now public fact that he had broken up with his girlfriend » – Sandra Lee, the complaint states.

« When she replied that she was in her late twenties, the governor said, ‘You’re too old for me. « »

The trooper claims Cuomo tried to kiss him, steered conversations towards sex and made comments about his appearance, once asking « why aren’t you wearing a dress? »

In response, the woman told the disgraced police officer that it was « impossible for her to carry a gun in a dress ».

After the encounter, the soldier received a message from his unit leader, who informed him that the interaction would « stay in the truck. »

The woman took the post as a « clear order not to disclose the governor’s inappropriate comment to anyone. »

On another occasion, he ran « his finger down the center of my spine, basically the top of my neck, basically halfway with his index finger and just said, ‘Hey, you,' » according to the complaint.

Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing.

The amended suit also lists Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa, senior adviser Richard Azzopardi and state police as charged with allegedly participating in a cover-up.

Cuomo’s attorneys and those for the other defendants intend to play hardball.

The Trooper case mentions a slew of other women who have accused Cuomo of abusing them and his attorneys intend to file them all, according to court documents.

“We are prepared to discuss the need for more than ten depositions…. To refute the allegations specific only to Trooper 1, we must depose a number of current and former New York State Troopers,” Glavin wrote to the judge.

“The Amended Complaint, however, makes specific additional allegations about Governor Cuomo regarding eleven women – taken from the Attorney General’s report – which compels the defense to file those women to rebut the allegations.

‘Had the complaint focused solely on plaintiff Trooper 1, and not included the allegations of approximately ten additional women, we could have agreed to take no more than ten depositions.’

Lawyers for Trooper 1 object to the testimony of the other female accusers.

“These witnesses have already testified before the Attorney General’s office under oath. They have already been filed,” said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Valdi Licul.

Meanwhile, attorneys for DeRosa and Azzopardi are trying to have the lawsuits against them dismissed.

« Plaintiff does not allege that Ms. DeRosa knew that Governor Cuomo was harassing her (assuming he was) and, therefore, Plaintiff cannot establish liability for complicity, » said the attorney for the Elkan Abramowitz defense.

« Plaintiff can point to no evidence that Ms. DeRosa was aware of Governor Cuomo’s allegedly harassing conduct, and Ms. DeRosa could not have retaliated against Private 1 as Plaintiff alleges because Ms. DeRosa was not not in government service at the time of the alleged act of retaliation. .”