The two young women who toppled the career of Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez when they accused him of sexual harassment can pursue a lawsuit against the state of New York for allowing the behavior to go on, a judge ruled.
In a decision released Thursday Justice Paul Wooten writes that before the women in his case, Victoria Burhans and Chloe Rivera, went public with their boss, two previous Lopez staffers had complained to legislative staff about his inappropriate conduct.
Yet the state officials never forwarded the complaints to the Ethics Committee or investigated the alleged incidents, Wooten notes.
“Lopez was never disciplined for his past behavior, nor were any actions taken to protect future employees who would be working with Lopez, despite there being many supervisory employees who were aware of Lopez’s harassment of prior female employees,” Wooten writes.
“Accordingly [Burhans and Rivers] have adequately pled that the State of New York should have known about Lopez’s propensity for improper conduct, yet failed to take any preventative actions,” he adds.
The ruling comes after the state’s attorney, Michael DeLarco, made a motion to toss the case claiming that Lopez is the one who should be on the legal hook for his behavior because the assemblyman, not the New York state, was their employer.
The women also sued Lopez and Speaker Sheldon Silver in federal court. That case is pending.
DeLarco says the state was merely a “glorified payroll provider.”
DeLarco declined to comment on the loss.
Lopez hired both Burhans and Rivera in April 2012.
Their suit includes allegations of “unwelcome verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature” including “repeated comments about their physical appearance, their bodies, their attire and their private relationships.”
He resigned in May 2013 after serving on the Assembly for 28 years.