(Reuters) – A former New York City worker filed go well with on Monday accusing Mayor Eric Adams of sexually assaulting her in 1993, when each labored for the municipal transit police bureau, after she went to him in the hunt for lend a hand in navigating a adversarial place of business atmosphere.
In a 26-web page civil criticism filed in New York state court docket in Manhattan, Lorna Beach-Mathura alleged that Adams, then a transit officer, assaulted her in his automotive whilst parked alongside the Hudson River after promising her a trip house to talk about her profession issues.
She had relied on Adams and sought his lend a hand as a result of of his position on the time as each a police division officer and chief in the NYPD Guardians Association, a fraternal staff advocating equality and honest remedy for Black staff, the go well with stated.
Adams flatly denied the allegations in a observation issued through town legal professionals.
Beach-Mathura stated the alleged attack capped years of pervasive sexual harassment, discrimination and repeated denials of promotion she had continued as an administrative aide for town transit bureau, now a component of the New York Police Department.
According to the criticism, Adams agreed to lend a hand her download a promotion and introduced to force her house one night to talk about the topic, however as an alternative took her to a darkened, vacant lot the place he demanded sexual favors in go back for his help.
As described in Beach-Mathura’s account, she refused his advances and pulled away her hand when Adams forcibly positioned it on his uncovered genitals sooner than he masturbated himself to climax and ejaculated on her within the automotive. She says he then dropped her off at a subway station.
According to Beach-Mathura, Adams additionally was once at the back of her next switch to every other division the place she misplaced seniority and was once compelled from her activity throughout layoffs “in retaliation for refusing his quid pro quo sexual demands.”
The lawsuit was once filed below New York’s Adult Survivors Act, permitting accusers to sue over alleged lengthy-in the past sexual abuse despite the fact that statutes of barriers have expired. Beach-Mathura reserved her proper to deliver the sort of go well with in a much less-detailed court docket summons to begin with filed towards Adams in November.
At the time, a spokesperson for the mayor denied the declare and stated Adams didn’t know the accuser or recall assembly her.
In a observation issued on Monday, New York City Corporation Counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix stated the mayor nonetheless “fully denies these outrageous allegations and the events described.”
It provides that Adams in 1993 “was one of the most prominent public opponents of the racism within the NYPD, which is why the suit’s allegations that he had any sway over promotions of civilian employees is ludicrous.”
The NYPD Transit Bureau, the Guardians Association and town of New York also are named as defendants in the go well with, which seeks unspecified damages.
(Reporting through Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing through Edwina Gibbs)
By Steve Gorman