CLARKSVILLE, N.Y. —
A New York sheriff on Friday defended his resolution to file a prison grievance towards former New York governor Andrew Cuomo with out consulting prosecutors or the accuser, a girl who says the Democrat groped her late final yr.
However Sheriff Craig Apple mentioned he was assured within the power of the case, which he mentioned was primarily based on witness interviews and voluminous data.
“I really feel very assured that the district legal professional goes to prosecute this,” he instructed reporters at a information convention in Albany, the state capital.
A court docket summons requires Cuomo to seem for an arraignment on Nov. 17, although that date may change.
He will likely be allowed to report voluntarily, however undersheriff William Rice instructed The Related Press the ex-governor will likely be booked on the sheriff’s headquarters, together with being photographed, fingerprinted and possibly positioned in handcuffs throughout a transport to court docket. Cuomo is not going to seemingly spend any time in a holding cell, Rice mentioned.
The one-page grievance filed in Albany Metropolis Courtroom accuses Cuomo of forcible touching by placing his hand below a girl’s shirt on Dec. 7.
The grievance didn’t title the lady, however she has recognized herself as Brittany Commisso, who labored as one in every of Cuomo’s government assistants earlier than he resigned amid sexual harassment allegations in August.
Forcible touching is a misdemeanor in New York, punishable by as much as a yr in jail, although many instances for first-time offenders are resolved with probation or a shorter jail sentence.
After the cost was filed, the Albany County District Legal professional’s Workplace mentioned that it had not been knowledgeable forward of time. It has been conducting its personal investigation and was anticipated to take the lead on a choice about whether or not to prosecute.
Commisso’s lawyer, Brian Premo, mentioned he had additionally anticipated the district legal professional’s workplace to deal with the case.
“I’ve little doubt that the sheriff’s investigators did an intensive job,” Premo instructed Albany radio station Speak 1300. “I’ve little doubt that they consider of their case. I’ve no situation with any of that. It is simply that this can be a politically charged matter, proper? … So I feel it is solely prudent to permit the prosecutorial authority to have a say in how the investigation is performed and whether or not there is a prosecution, proper?”
In an interview earlier within the day with Speak 1300, the sheriff mentioned it was “disheartening” that the court docket system made the prison grievance public instantly, one thing he described as a “leak,” though such court docket filings are public in New York and are routinely made obtainable to reporters.
“We did not need all people to know precisely what we had been doing as a result of we did not need all this, the circus,” Apple mentioned on the radio program, as he sought to elucidate the confusion over the grievance’s submitting Thursday.
“We weren’t anticipating a five-minute turnaround” for the court docket to determine whether or not to situation a summons or a warrant, he mentioned later, including that the confusion would haven’t any impact on a “strong case.”
The sheriff mentioned he would have favored to have had “a deeper dialog” with the district legal professional and an opportunity to achieve out to Cuomo’s legal professional.
He counseled his investigators, saying “they took a really high-profile investigation and determined to interrupt it down.”
He mentioned it was commonplace for the sheriff’s workplace to file misdemeanor costs within the metropolis court docket with out first consulting with the district legal professional’s workplace.
Commisso accused Cuomo of groping her after they had been alone in an workplace on the governor’s mansion in Albany. Cuomo has denied the allegations.
The AP doesn’t determine alleged sexual assault victims until they determine to inform their tales publicly, as Commisso has carried out.
The previous governor’s legal professional, Rita Glavin, reasserted the governor’s denial and mentioned the sheriff’s submitting of the prison grievance was politically motivated. She cited Friday’s announcement by state Legal professional Basic Letitia James that she is going to run for governor.
“The timing of this cost, on the eve of Tish James asserting her run for governor, is very suspect and may give all of us pause that the heavy hand of politics is behind this resolution,” Glavin mentioned.
James oversaw a civil investigation into Cuomo’s conduct with girls, however she was not concerned within the sheriff’s prison probe.
Apple insisted that politics performed no half within the investigation. The sheriff and the legal professional common are each Democrats, as is Albany County District Legal professional David Soares.
“We count on clear-headed individuals will make higher selections going ahead,” Glavin mentioned in an announcement. “However ought to this case transfer ahead, we’re ready to vigorously defend the governor and problem each facet of the specious, inconsistent and uncorroborated allegations made towards him.”
