The district attorney in Albany on Friday claimed the criminal sexual harassment charge leveled against disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo may be “potentially defective” because it lacks a sworn statement from the victim in the case, Brittany Commisso.
Albany County District Attorney David Soares requested — and received — a two month delay in Cuomo’s arraignment, sending a bombshell letter to Judge Holly Trexler, who is overseeing the case.
Cuomo’s arraignment, originally set for Nov. 17, has now been pushed to Jan. 7.
“My office has been investigating this matter for several months,” Soares wrote, referring to the allegations that Cuomo groped Commisso in 2020 at the Governor’s mansion. “We were in the middle of that investigation when the Sheriff unilaterally and inexplicably filed a complaint with this Court.”
“Unfortunately the filings in this matter are potentially defective in that the police-officer-complainant failed to include a sworn statement by the victim such that the People could proceed with a prosecution on these papers,” Soares added.
The DA’s letter charged in a footnote the complaint filed by Albany Sheriff Craig Apple’s officers omitted a portion of a transcript of Commisso’s testimony, which had now been provided to Cuomo’s attorneys because of its “exculpatory nature.”
A spokesman for Cuomo declined to comment.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple rejected the DA’s contention in a statement.
“The investigators included sworn testimony and the policies and protocols for interviewing victims of sexual assault were followed,” he said.
Apple’s officers stunned the state in October when they filed a criminal complaint against Cuomo in October, alleging the former governor violated state law by groping Commisso — then a Cuomo staffer — at the Governor’s mansion in December 2020.
The charge came two months after Cuomo resigned from office following Attorney General Letitia James’s explosive report that revealed or affirmed complaints of sexual harassment and misconduct from 11 women against the state’s chief executive.
Commisso was identified only as Executive Assistant #1 in James’s report, but she later came forward in an interview with CBS News, in which she claimed he groped and hugged her for “personal sexual satisfaction.”
In the sitdown, she accused Cuomo of grabbing her butt and kissing her on the lips — all without her consent.
“These were not hugs he would give his mother or his brother. These are hugs with the intention of getting some personal sexual satisfaction out of it,” she said.
She detailed one interaction on New Year’s Eve in 2019 where Cuomo suggested taking a selfie — and then began to rub her butt.
“He was to my left. I was on the right. With my right hand, I took the selfie,” she recalled.
“I then felt while taking the selfie, his hand goes down my back onto my butt, and he started rubbing it. Not sliding it. Not, you know, quickly brushing over it — rubbing my butt.”
She said she was so “nervous” that her hands began shaking, prompting Cuomo to suggest they sit on the couch because all the photos were blurry.
“I remember looking at them, and when he said, ‘Can I see them?,’ I showed him them,” she recalled. “And he said, ‘Oh, those aren’t — those aren’t good,’” and suggested they sit on the couch instead.The selfie was included in James’s report.
Cuomo initially attempted to fight back against James’s report, arguing it was a politically-engineered hit job.
However, combined with scandals surrounding his administration’s counting of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and the $5 million deal to write a memoir about the pandemic, his support melted away.
And James is now a top contender for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2022.
After resigning in August, Cuomo has used his $18 million political war chest to hire attorneys who have attempted to pick apart James’s report — including focusing on a second allegation made by Commisso.
Commisso also alleged that Cuomo asked her over to the executive mansion in late 2019 to help him with his cellphone and then groped her breasts.
Commisso, who lawyer declined comment on Soares Friday, told investigators she could not remember when the alleged assault occurred exactly — however the Attorney General’s report initial suggested it took place in late November.
However, documents later provided to law enforcement suggest the groping took place a week or two later — in early December.