Judge dismisses criminal charge against Cuomo
ALBANY, N.Y. — The only criminal charge filed over the sexual harassment allegations that drove former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from office was dismissed Friday at prosecutors’ request, clearing what had been seen as the most serious legal threat to the Democrat.
The move had been expected after Albany County prosecutors said they couldn’t prove the case and wanted to drop it, and Cuomo’s lawyers asked the court to agree.
Cuomo, who denied the allegation that he groped an aide in the executive mansion in 2020, didn’t speak during Friday’s short virtual hearing. Wearing a black mask, he was briefly visible on the videoconference as his lawyer Rita Glavin moved her camera to show him in the room.
“As the governor has said, this simply did not happen,” she said in a video statement after the hearing.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer McCanney told the court that prosecutors had “reviewed all of the available evidence and concluded we cannot successfully secure a conviction in this case.”
Judge Holly Trexler noted district attorneys’ “unfettered discretion” to decide whether to prosecute a case.
“A court may not and should not interfere with discretion of a district attorney,” she said.
The former governor could still face lawsuits if his accusers choose to take him to court. Some accusers, including Cuomo’s former aide Brittany Commisso, have indicated they plan to do so.
The local sheriff filed the misdemeanor complaint in October, two months after Cuomo resigned.
Although the aide was credible and some evidence supported her account, Albany County District Attorney David Soares told Trexler this week he believed he couldn’t win a conviction.
Commisso said Cuomo slid his hand up her blouse and grabbed her breast when they were alone in an office at the mansion.
Her testimony was among the most damning in a report released in August by Democratic state Attorney General Letitia James that concluded Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women. He said he never touched anyone inappropriately.
Cuomo resigned that month. Soares has said he was caught by surprise when Sheriff Craig Apple, a fellow Democrat, filed the forcible touching complaint without consulting the prosecutor’s office. Soares called it “potentially defective” and moved to delay Cuomo’s arraignment, originally set for November.
In a letter to Trexler on Tuesday, Soares said “statutory elements of New York law make this case impossible to prove.” He added that government inquiries into Cuomo’s conduct had created “technical and procedural hurdles” regarding prosecutors’ obligations to disclose evidence to the defense.
Glavin on Friday called the complaint “a blatant political act,” branded Apple a “rogue sheriff” and assailed Commisso’s credibility. Apple has shrugged off previous attacks by Cuomo’s representatives as unfounded.
Some legal experts said Soares’ decision illustrated the difficulties of prosecuting sex crime allegations. But others said he should have proceeded if he considered the accuser credible.
Commisso was among the critics.
“My disappointing experience of re-victimization with the failure to prosecute a serial sexual abuser, no matter what degree the crime committed, yet again sadly highlights the reason victims are afraid to come forward, especially against people in power,” Commisso said in a statement Tuesday to the Times Union of Albany.
Soares, in a radio interview Friday, noted that the attorney general’s inquiry didn’t have the same legal requirements as a criminal case, and he said prosecutors can’t be swayed by public sentiment or “passions.”