(New York) A third woman on Monday accused the governor of New York State of inappropriate behavior, further weakening the position of this powerful-elected Democrat already accused of sexual harassment by two former collaborators.
This young woman, Anna Roche, 33, who was never quite cooperative with him, told The New York Times That Andrew Cuomo asked him, at a wedding in 2019, if he could kiss her, even though she had just pushed the hand he had placed on it away.
“I was confused, shocked and very embarrassed,” she told the newspaper. “I turned my head away and was speechless.”
The testimony further complicates matters for the 63-year-old governor, who has come under more criticism than ever before, after becoming a national star for his management of the pandemic in 2020.
She adds to the statements of her former economic adviser, Lindsay Boylan, 36, who said on Wednesday that the governor accepted her without asking her from her mouth and suggested that she play a game of poker with him, when she worked with him between 2015 and 2018 and that former collaborator, Charlotte Bennett, aged 25 years old, which she indicated on Saturday that the governor had proposed to her, which made her “uncomfortable” in Spring 2020.
Mr. Cuomo, one of America’s most powerful rulers, tried Sunday to calm the storm sparked by the accusations, by saying “sorry” for saying things his former colleagues had said to him “mistakenly interpreted as unwanted flirtation.”
The person who ran New York state for 10 years had asserted that he never wanted progress for them, and only wanted “joking” or “harassment.”
“Offensive” excuses
But New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was notorious for having difficult relationships with the governor, ruled that the “apology” was not the case.
Photo by Brendan Madermaid, Reuters Archives
Bill de Blasio
It’s like he was saying, “I was just joking,” but the sexual harassment is not funny. The mayor said, “He seemed to be freeing himself from blame for something that to the women concerned seemed so terrifying.”
A group of former parliamentary aides who denounced the harassment in the New York State Parliament, also considered the sexual harassment working group “insulting” to the governor’s apology, who “refuses to accept his responsibilities.”
On Monday evening, Charlotte Bennett estimated that the governor’s words were “a man who uses his power to avoid justice,” in a statement to The New York Times.
“I am with you, Anna Roche,” she wrote on Twitter. “His aggressive and indecent behavior cannot be justified.” Lindsay Boylan also expressed her solidarity with this third defendant in a tweet.
While some elected officials in New York, including the Democratic majority, are calling for the resignation of Mr. Cuomo, whose third term expires at the end of 2022, the leaders of both houses have abstained from voting for the time being, pending the results of an investigation into these allegations. .
“We will wait for the report but I think ultimately we will have to do something,” said Barron, a Democrat in the Senate in New York, on Monday. “The question of whether the governor can continue (to take office) remains open.” . Mike Giannares, on NY1.
State prosecutor Letitia James confirmed on Monday that Mr. Cuomo had finally agreed to assign her the task of investigating, having first suggested it to a former judge who knew him well.
M. “The results will be announced in a public report.”I am James, without specifying when.