Disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo could have his sex crime charge tossed out after the Albany County district attorney called the complaint 'potentially defective.'
District Attorney David Soares said that Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple filed the complaint 'unilaterally and inexplicably' while his investigation was still ongoing.
Soares, a Democrat, added that the complaint did not even include a sworn statement by the alleged victim, former aide Brittany Commisso, that would allow them to prosecute the deposed governor.
The DA noted that parts of Commisso's prior testimony were excluded and that one part of the complaint incorrectly stated the relevant law that Cuomo had allegedly broken.
Judge Holly Trexler of Albany City Court agreed to Soares' request to postpone Cuomo's arraignment until January 7, giving the district attorney 60 days 'to reduce the risk of a procedural dismissal of this case' and give Soares 'time to continue with our independent and unbiased review of the facts.'
Disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo could have a sex crime charge tossed out after a letter written by the Albany County district attorney calling the complaint 'potentially defective.'
Cuomo is pictured with Brittany Commisso, the former aide who claims he groped her breast in the Executive Mansion in November 2020. The picture was taken in 2019 and she says he'd touched her behind shortly before it was taken
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple (pictured) filed the initial charge of forcible touching
Albany County District Attorney David Soares (pictured) said Apple filed the complaint 'unilaterally and inexplicably' while his investigation was still ongoing
Cuomo has been charged with forcible touching, two months after being pushed out of office by New York AG Letitia James, the woman now campaigning for his job.
James announced a campaign for governor on October 29, which led some Cuomo supporters to call the investigation phony and politically motivated.
On Sunday, the Cuomo camp had issued a lengthy statement saying that 'Sheriff Apple and Tish James have epitomized the worst combination of politics, incompetence and abuse of the law.'
'Despite Apple’s claim that there is "overwhelming evidence", he has offered zero evidence corroborating the claim. Likewise the James report did not offer any corroborating evidence of the claim,' the Cuomo statement added.
James on Monday responded saying: 'This is nothing more than an attempt by the former governor to undermine and politicize this report.'
'I believe the women. They obviously told their truth. And we are going to stand by our report,' she added, according to NY1.
The charges were filed last week in Albany City Court. They relate to the allegation brought by Commisso, a former aide who claimed Cuomo groped her breast in the office of the Executive Mansion in Albany in December 2020, when he was at the height of his pandemic popularity.
Cuomo has always denied it.
Soares indicated that Apple's decision to charge Cuomo caught him off guard, having not said whether his office intended to prosecute the case.
Apple has defended the decision, which was based off his own department's investigation, adding that it wasn't necessary for his office to coordinate with Soares.
Commisso's claim was the most serious of all of the allegations listed in James' report, which Cuomo has always maintained was a hit-job by James to get him out of her way.
'From the moment my office received the referral to investigate allegations that former Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, we proceeded without fear or favor,' James' office said in a statement.
'The criminal charges brought today against Mr. Cuomo for forcible touching further validate the findings in our report.'
Commisso claimed that she felt violated and that Cuomo wouldn't 'touch his mother' the way he did her. He has always denied her claims
The complaint, which was signed by an investigator from the Albany County Sheriff's Office, alleges that the former governor 'intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly place his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim and onto her intimate body part'
If convicted, Cuomo - who has not yet commented - could face up to one year in prison.
The complaint, which was signed by an investigator from the Albany County Sheriff's Office, alleges that the former governor 'intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly place his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim and onto her intimate body part.'
Cuomo is alleged to have touched Commisso's left breast 'for the purposes of degrading and gratifying his sexual desires, all contrary to the provisions of the statute.'
The incident is alleged to have taken place on the second floor of the governor's Executive Mansion in Albany on December 7, 2020, sometime between 3:51pm and 4:07pm.
The complaint was signed by an investigator on Monday.
Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin has said that Commisso's 'story changed over time.'
The complaint filed by the sheriff's department investigator said evidence in the case included police BlackBerry messages, cell phone records, building security records and a text message from Cuomo's mobile phone.
District attorneys in Oswego, Manhattan, suburban Westchester and Nassau counties also had said they asked for investigative materials from the attorney general’s inquiry to see if any of the allegations could result in criminal charges.
The announcement of the charge was chaotic on Thursday; the criminal summons was filed hastily, before sheriff's deputies had received the permission of Commisso.
It was then leaked to a local reporter in Albany, who tweeted about it and published a brief report on New York Focus.
Spokespeople for the Albany County Sheriff's Department then refused to confirm or deny whether or not their office had filed charges.
Eventually Lucien Chalfen, a spokesman for the court system, confirmed it to The Washington Post.
'A Misdemeanor Complaint against former Governor Andrew Cuomo has been filed in Albany City Court.
'As this is a sex crime, a redacted complaint will be available shortly,' he said.
The Times Union - another local Albany paper - reports that the charges had been filed too early in a clerical error.
Albany's top prosecutor released a statement on Thursday indicating that he was 'surprised' by the court filing.
‘Like the rest of the public, we were surprised to learn today that a criminal complaint was filed in Albany City Court by the Albany County Sheriff’s Office against Andrew Cuomo,’ read a statement from the office of Soares.
‘The Office of Court Administration has since made that filing public.
‘Our office will not be coming further on this case.’
Commisso was one of multiple women who gave evidence against Cuomo as part of the AG's investigation.
She also spoke on TV about the alleged incident in November 2020.
'I said, "Governor, you're going to get us in trouble." Then I thought to myself, that probably wasn't the best thing to say.
'That's when he put his hand up my blouse and cupped my breast over my bra.
'I remember seeing his hand, which is a large hand, and thinking "oh my God, this is happening."
'He didn't say anything,' she said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a run for governor on October 29
Cuomo has been laying low since his resignation, occasionally sharing photos on Instagram of himself fishing with his dog, Captain
Andrew Cuomo told the doctor who carried out his COVID-19 test last spring that she 'made the gown look good'. AG James said that amounted to sexual harassment, and she included it in the report
The majority of the allegations that James said amounted to serial sexual harassment were non-physical.
One of them applied to a nurse who gave the governor his first on-camera COVID-19 test.
He told her she made the 'gown look good', which James considered sexual harassment.
Others said Cuomo asked them about their boyfriends - which he admits - and that he 'clearly' insinuated wanting to sleep with them, but never did.
Cuomo fight the claims, resisting an Albany impeachment proceeding and pushing on with the COVID governance he was revered for at the start of the year, before eventually bowing out.
Since resigning, he has made few public statements aside from to bash James and her report, which he says is all politically motivated.
The allegations of sexual misconduct peppered the final year of his ten year governorship.
He got the job after his predecessor, Elliot Spitzer, resigned in shame having been caught patronizing a prostitution service.
Cuomo always denied that he was a sex pest and said at worst, he made inappropriate comments and jokes as an affectionate Italian man, like his father was.
The sexual misconduct allegations came at the same time as claims of gross negligence stemming from Cuomo's order to send thousands of COVID-19 positive elderly people back into New York nursing homes, a decision which many say proved fatal.
Not only did those infected patients infect others and lead to more deaths, critics say Cuomo's administration also tried to cover it up by deliberately skewing COVID deaths numbers.
For months, his administration reported the deaths of people who contracted COVID in nursing homes as 'hospital deaths' because they had died in hospitals.
He was only reporting nursing home deaths for people who contracted COVID in the nursing home and died in the nursing home.
His administration says it was an innocent error in numbers reporting.
Cuomo's political enemies seized on that scandal and the sexual misconduct claims, both of which were made even more irresistible when he released a smug memoir last October in the height of the second wave, titled Lessons in Leadership.
Cuomo was panned for writing the self-congratulatory book at a time when dozens of people were still dying every day in the state.
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