Former N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is being sued by a state trooper who claims he sexually harassed her over a period of three years while she served on his security detail.
The trooper’s allegations were first detailed in a report filed by the office of the N.Y. State Attorney General on Aug. 3, 2021. The report looked into allegations that, while he was governor, Andrew Cuomo serially sexually harassed 11 women, nine of whom were state employees, including “Trooper #1.”
According to the report, on Nov. 4, 2017, Trooper #1 was dispatched to assist with a press event being held by Gov. Cuomo. At the event, the trooper met the governor and the two exchanged small talk. The next day, the senior investigator told Trooper #1 that the governor had requested she be transferred to his Protective Service Unit (PSU). Although she was not yet eligible to serve on the PSU because she didn’t have the requisite three years experience, that requirement was soon waived, and by Jan. of 2018, she had been assigned to protect the governor.
When investigators asked Cuomo about his insistence that the 20-something trooper be transferred to his personal detail, he claimed that he “was on constant alert to recruit more women, Blacks, and Asians to the state police detail.” The senior investigator who processed the trooper’s transfer confirmed that diversity was an important criterion in trooper recruitment but that the governor had personally followed up to make sure Trooper #1 was hired to the PSU.
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Over the next three years, Trooper #1 worked at Gov. Cuomo’s residence before being placed on his travel team in April 2019. According to the report, “Trooper #1 described the Governor’s behavior toward her after she joined the PSU as generally ‘flirtatious’ and ‘creepy.’ She did not observe the Governor acting in a similar way with State Troopers who were men.” Although Cuomo frequently made Trooper #1 feel uncomfortable, “she did not feel she could safely report or rebuff the conduct because, based on her experience and discussions with others in the PSU, she feared retaliation and believed her career success hinged on whether the Governor liked her. She explained, ‘[w]ithin the PSU, it’s kind of known that the Governor gives the seal of approval who gets promoted and who doesn’t within PSU.'”
The investigation found that Cuomo habitually said suggestive, inappropriate things to Trooper #1. He would offer to give her a tour of the mansion or invite her to go “upstairs” in a way that made her uncomfortable. He once asked her why she always wore dark colors and why she didn’t wear a dress. Another time, he told her her jacket was too big and she looked like an “Amish person.” Apparently, Gov. Cuomo expected the attractive females he finagled into his detail to dress in a way he could appreciate.
Eventually, the report says, Cuomo escalated his flirtatious behavior to physical contact. One time, when Trooper 1 rode in an elevator with him, he ran his fingers down her spine from her neck to her waist and said, “Hey, you.” Another time, when she routinely asked the governor if he needed anything, he asked if he could kiss her. Mindful of repercussions if she aggravated him, Trooper #1 eventually answered, “sure.” Cuomo kissed her on the cheek and joked about how he wasn’t supposed to do that.
In Sept. 2019, while Trooper #1 held a door open for the governor to go through, he ran his open hand over her belly and hip as he passed. She told investigators that she felt “completely violated because to me, like that’s between my chest and my privates.” A senior member of the PSU who witnessed the event asked Trooper #1 whether she wanted to do anything about it. She declined to report the governor’s conduct out of fear of retaliation to herself or her superior to whom she would make the report.
The trooper filed the lawsuit in federal court on Thursday, naming former Gov. Cuomo, the New York State Police, and Cuomo’s former aide Melissa DeRosa. In her suit, Trooper #1 claims DeRosa was “specifically involved in hiding the governor’s behavior.” NBC News reports that “[t]he trooper’s lawsuit says she is seeking damages for ‘severe mental anguish and emotional distress,’ a declaratory judgment that Cuomo, DeRosa and the state police violated federal, state and city laws barring harassment, and attorney fees.”
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, said in a statement, “This claim relies on the AG’s proven fraud of a report, as demonstrated by the five district attorneys who, one by one – Democrat and Republican – looked at its findings and found no violations of law. If kissing someone on the cheek, patting someone on the back or stomach or waving hello at a public event on New Year’s Eve is actionable then we are all in trouble.”
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