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DAs close in on Gov. Cuomo, launch criminal probes in Manhattan, Westchester

By Bernadette Hogan, Ben Feuerherd and Bruce Golding

August 4, 2021 | 1:48pm | Updated

Prosecutors in New York City and Westchester County piled on Monday and revealed that they’ve launched criminal investigations into sexual harassment allegations made against Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the explosive report released by state Attorney General Letitia James.

The probes will apparently target Cuomo’s behavior at his satellite office in Manhattan and his former home in Mount Kisco where he lived with his then-girlfriend, celebrity chef Sandra Lee.

A spokesman for outgoing Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said, “When our office learned yesterday that the Attorney General’s investigation of the Governor’s conduct was complete, our office contacted the Attorney General’s Office to begin requesting investigative materials in their possession pertaining to incidents that occurred in Manhattan.”

Westchester DA Mimi Rocah also issued a statement saying, “As some of the Governor’s conduct described in the report occurred in Westchester County, we have formally requested investigative materials obtained by the AG’s Office.”

The announcements followed a Tuesday night interview in which Albany DA County David Soares said he’d launched a probe and urged any potential victims to cooperate with his office, saying that “we will conduct our investigation as discreetly as possible.”

Soares also told NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt that James’ 168-page report had “led myself and other prosecutors with concurrent jurisdiction to believe that criminal activity in fact had taken place.”

The most serious allegation made against Cuomo involves a Nov. 16 incident in the Executive Mansion in Albany, where he’s accused of putting his hand under the shirt of a female aide and grabbing her breast over her bra.

Governor Andrew Cuomo sits close to an executive assistant on a couch after allegedly groping her, seen on the NY Post’s cover.
“I mean it was — he was like cupping my breast. He cupped my breast,” the unidentified woman said in sworn testimony to investigators, according to James’ report.

The report details another incident during which the three-term Democrat allegedly touched a female state trooper “in an unwelcome way” while she and a state police investigator — both of whom were members of the governor’s security detail — were escorting him to his office at 633 Third Ave.

While they “were riding the elevator up, the Governor placed his finger on the top of [the trooper’s] neck and ran his finger down the center of her spine midway down her back, and said to [her], ‘Hey, you,’” according to the report.

A former aide, Lindsey Boylan — whose allegations touched off the harassment scandal engulfing Cuomo, 63 — also accused him of “having kissed her at the close of a one-on-one meeting” inside his 38th-floor office.

“Specifically, as Ms. Boylan walked by the Governor to leave, he stepped toward her and kissed her on the lips. Boylan said she was shocked by the kiss, said nothing, and just kept walking,” according to the report.

The trooper told investigators that one of Cuomo’s first “inappropriate interactions” with her took place outside his then-home in Mount Kisco in September 2018, according to the report.

The woman mentioned that she was going to Albany for her sister’s wedding the following weekend, prompting Cuomo to offer her a tour of the Executive Mansion “unless it [was] against protocols,” the report said.

Cuomo then “snickered” and walked away, leaving the trooper “uncomfortable” due to his “suggestive” remarks, according to the report.