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Cuomo won't face charges
The district attorney in Oswego County will not pursue criminal charges against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. A woman accused Cuomo of running his fingers across the chest of her shirt at a public event.
NEW YORK (AP/FOX 5 NY) - A district attorney in central New York state said he will not bring criminal charges against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo based on the accusations of a woman who said Cuomo ran his fingers across the chest of her shirt at a public event.
Oswego County District Attorney Gregory Oakes is the latest prosecutor declining to pursue a criminal case over sexual harassment allegations against the former governor.
In a prepared statement, Oakes said he didn't have "a sufficient legal basis" to bring charges against Cuomo based on the allegation of unwanted physical contact made by Virginia Limmiatis. Oakes said the decision was based solely on a legal assessment and that he found Limmiatis to be reliable and reasonable.
"In no way should this decision be interpreted as casting doubt upon the character or credibility of Ms. Limmiatis, or how harmful the acts she experienced were," Oakes said.
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The energy company worker said Cuomo ran his fingers on the lettering that ran across the chest of her shirt when they met in a rope line at a 2017 event in Oswego County. He then told her he was going to say there was a spider on her shoulder and proceeded to brush her chest with his hand, according to a report released in August by state Attorney General Letitia James that concluded Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women.
Limmiatis immediately told other attendees what had happened, investigators found, but she didn't come forward until seeing Cuomo's press conference last year denying he'd touched anyone inappropriately.
Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo testifies during a sexual harassment investigation against him.
"Cuomo not only touched my chest inappropriately, but whispered in my ear afterwards to make up a patently ridiculous excuse to cover up his behavior," Limmiatis said in a statement released by her attorney Monday.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, called the accusation "a farce."
"As now five DAs have verified, none of the accusations in Tish James' fraud of a report have stood up to any level of real scrutiny," Azzopardi said. "This has always been a political hit job to further the Attorney General's own ambitions, which both reeks of prosecutorial misconduct and has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars. As we've said since the beginning, the truth will come out."
Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin, who also has been highly critical of the attorney general's report, said that photographs from the event show Cuomo did not act improperly.
"The photographic evidence that the AG's report hid from the public indisputably showed that Governor Cuomo did not act improperly," Glavin said in a prepared statement. "Truth and the rule of law prevailed, not politics or mob mentality."
Earlier this year, a judge in Albany dismissed the only criminal charge filed against Cuomo at the request of Albany County District Attorney David Soares. That case involved an allegation that he groped an aide in the executive mansion in 2020 and was seen as the most serious legal threat facing Cuomo.
Soares said the aide was credible and that some evidence supported her account but he didn't believe he could win a conviction.
The district attorneys in Westchester County and Nassau County separately announced that Cuomo would not face charges for allegations involving other women who said they had been subjected to unwanted kisses or touches.