According to a summons filed this week, a former staffer to ex-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who previously claimed Cuomo touched her breast, is suing him for sexual harassment and assault.
According to the summons filed Wednesday in Albany County Supreme Court, Brittany Commisso, one of 11 women whose claims of harassment were substantiated by an August 2021 report by the state's attorney general, is suing the former governor under New York's Adult Survivors Act, alleging "pervasive abusive conduct" and "continuous sexual harassment" during her employment as his assistant.
The state bill, passed six months later in May 2022, created a one-year window allowing adult survivors of sexual assaults to sue their alleged abusers, even if the statute of limitations on their claims had expired.
Cuomo is one of several high-profile persons who were sued in the last hours before the statute was supposed to expire at midnight on Thursday.
The former governor has flatly dismissed Commisso's allegations. On Friday, his counsel called the action a "cash grab."
"Ms. Commisso's claims are provably false, which is why the Albany District Attorney dismissed the case two years ago after a thorough investigation," Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin said in a statement to CNN. "Ms. Commisso's transparent cash grab will fail." We are excited to see her in court."
Cuomo, the State of New York, and another former Cuomo assistant are named as defendants in the summons, which seeks damages for "substantial personal injuries and economic loss plaintiff suffered."
Cuomo resigned as a result of a state report.
Commisso was one of the women interviewed by investigators appointed by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James to look into allegations of sexual misconduct by the former governor. Cuomo eventually resigned as a result of the report, which he revealed on August 10, 2021, a week after it was released.
Commisso told detectives that Cuomo touched her buttocks during embraces and a photo, according to the state's investigation. The investigation also included an allegation, previously reported by the Albany Times Union, that Cuomo reached under her blouse and grabbed her breast at the governor's mansion.
After the district attorney declined to prosecute the forced touching charge, an Albany City Court dropped it in January 2022. Following the filing of the misdemeanor charge against Cuomo by the county sheriff's office, Albany District Attorney David Soares sent a statement stating that the accusation was "impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in criminal court" while finding Commisso "credible."
According to the summons issued this week by Commisso, the former governor's actions included "unwelcome sexual advances" and "sexual comments" about her appearance and personal life. It also accuses Cuomo of assigning "humiliating and demeaning tasks, hugs, kisses," as well as the sexual misconduct instances included in the state report for 2021.
It also alleges she was subjected to "objectively unreasonable and abusive" behavior, which she believed she was "forced to endure in order to keep her job."
The summons claims Commisso was retaliated against for refusing Cuomo's sexual advances and later reporting the behavior.
According to the affidavit, Commisso claims she was demoted by then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, removed from the front office, and assigned the "demeaning task of answering telephones" for Hochul's office.
Gov. Hochul is not a listed defendant in the litigation, but he is mentioned in the summons.
In a statement, Hochul's spokesperson, Avi Small, told CNN, "The claim regarding then-Lieutenant Governor Hochul is clearly a mistake, as she had no control over Executive Chamber personnel decisions." We can only presume that this accusation is the result of an error in the summons' preparation."
The State of New York is named as a defendant, and CNN has sought out to the state for comment.
Meanwhile, Politico reported this week, citing eight people who have spoken with him or his inner circle, that Cuomo was assessing the viability of a potential mayoral bid against the backdrop of an ongoing FBI investigation into New York City Mayor Eric Adams, which is focused on campaign money, favors, and possible foreign influence.
Cuomo's resurrected political ambitions were revealed before Adams was accused of a sexual assault in 1993 in a court record filed under the same Adult Survivors Act.
Adams has consistently and emphatically denied the accusation, claiming he never met the lady.
In a statement released to CNN, Commisso said: "It disgusts me that Andrew Cuomo is even considering running for public office in the wake of Mayor [Eric] Adams' alleged sexual harassment when he himself will not accept responsibility or even acknowledge his sexual harassment of me, aside from numerous other victims, while the governor of our state.