Cuomo not to face charges in fondling claim
ALBANY, N.Y. — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo won’t face criminal prosecution over an allegation that he fondled an aide after a prosecutor said Tuesday that he couldn’t prove the case.
Three days before the Democratic ex-governor was to answer the misdemeanor charge in court, Albany County District Attorney David Soares asked a judge to dismiss a criminal complaint that the county sheriff filed in October.
“While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence, we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial,” Soares said in a statement, adding that he was “deeply troubled” by the allegation.
Soares, a Democrat, didn’t detail why he felt it would be tough to win a conviction.
In a letter to the judge, he said “statutory elements of New York law make this case impossible to prove.” He added that multiple government inquiries into Cuomo’s conduct had created “technical and procedural hurdles” regarding prosecutors’ obligations to disclose evidence to the defense.
Soares said his office considered other potential criminal charges, but none fit the allegations.
Cuomo, who has vehemently denied the allegation, had no immediate comment on the development, first reported by The Times-Union of Albany.
The charges against Cuomo were based on allegations by Brittany Commisso, one of the governor’s executive assistants before he resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations in August.
Commisso says Cuomo slid his hand up her blouse and grabbed her breast when they were alone in an office at the Governor’s Mansion in Albany in late 2020.
Her lawyer, Brian Premo, said in a statement Tuesday that she “had no control over the filing or prosecution of criminal charges. She had no authority or voice in those decisions.”
Commisso’s testimony was included in a report, released in August by Democratic state Attorney General Letitia James, that concluded Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women. He announced his resignation a week after the report, which he’s attacked as inaccurate and biased.
Cuomo denied that he had groped her, telling the attorney general’s investigators “it would be an act of insanity to touch a woman’s breast and make myself vulnerable to a woman for such an accusation.”
Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin has said Commisso had an “evolving version” of what happened.
The Associated Press doesn’t identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they decide to tell their stories publicly, as Commisso has done in interviews.
The development in Albany comes after two prosecutors in New York City suburbs separately announced that Cuomo wouldn’t face criminal charges in allegations involving other women.
A Long Island prosecutor announced Dec. 23 that there would be no charges after a state trooper on Cuomo’s security detail told state investigators that he ran his hand across her abdomen at an event at Belmont Park in September 2019.
Five days later, the district attorney in Westchester County announced that Cuomo would not face charges stemming from allegations from that same trooper and another woman that the former governor planted unwanted kisses on their cheeks.
In both instances, the prosecutors said the allegations were credible, but they could not pursue criminal charges.