Mayor Adams is accused of sexually assaulting a colleague in 1993
Mayor Eric Adams asked a colleague for oral sex in exchange for career help in 1993 and sexually assaulted her when she refused, she said in a legal complaint filed Monday.
The detailed complaint, part of a lawsuit originally filed in November in Manhattan under the Adult Survivors Act, said the woman, who worked with Mr. Adams at the New York City transit police department, asked him for help after being passed over for a promotion.
Mr. Adams, a police officer, brought the woman, an administrative assistant with the department, to a vacant lot and requested oral sex, according to the 26-page complaint. When she refused, he forced her to touch his penis and ejaculated on her leg, the complaint said.
“The consequences of this assault, betrayal and astonishing abuse of power continue to haunt Plaintiff to this day,” the complaint said.
Mr. Adams, a Democrat, has repeatedly denied assaulting the woman. The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
At a community meeting in December, he dismissed the accusations, saying, “That’s not who I am.”
“I want to be very clear: it never happened,” he said. “I don’t even know who that person is. I can’t even remember if I’ve ever met them before.”
New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which was signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul in 2022, gave people a year to file lawsuits over sexual assault that may have occurred years or decades ago.
The woman filed a brief in New York Supreme Court in November, just before the one-year grace period expired, accusing Mr. Adams of assaulting her.
But the new complaint goes deeper, accusing Mr. Adams of asking for a “quid pro quo sexual favor.” It says the woman was particularly scared during the alleged assault because she believed Mr Adams, as a police officer, had a loaded gun in the car.
The woman, who now lives in Florida, joined the transit police in 1980 as an administrative assistant and stopped working for the city in 1994, the complaint said.
Her attorney, Megan Goddard, said in a statement that she was proud of her client.
“She knew that filing this lawsuit would cause her significant personal hardship, but she did so anyway because she believes sexual abusers should be held accountable, no matter who they are,” she said.
The lawsuit against Mr. Adams seeks $5 million and also names the Police Department and the Guardians Association, a fraternal organization of black police officers, as defendants. Mr Adams was active with the Guardians at the time of the alleged attack.
In addition to assault, the woman accuses Mr. Adams and the department of gender discrimination, retaliation, creating a hostile work environment and infliction of emotional distress.
The plaintiff has also filed other lawsuits in the past. In 2008, she sued American Airlines and lost, arguing that an employee caused her to fall out of a wheelchair, injuring her back.
She sued the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Board in 2009, alleging she was denied compensation after she was assaulted by a student. She lost at trial and subsequently appealed parts of the decision to the Florida Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court, where she won several procedural motions but failed to win a new trial.
Mr. Adams was an officer with the Transit Police Department at the time of the alleged attack in 1993. He joined the force in 1995 after the Transit Department was absorbed into the larger agency.
After more than two decades as a police officer, Mr. Adams served as a senator and Brooklyn Borough President before being elected mayor in November 2021.
The complaint stated that the plaintiff sought help from Mr. Adams because he had been an advocate for black employees within the police department. She said she repeatedly told him “no” during the alleged attack and was “sickened and disgusted” by his behavior.
She said she did not come forward with the allegations at the time because she was a divorced mother of young children and feared she could lose her job.