Another accuser stepped forward today to accuse New York Andrew Cuomo of kissing her without permission.
At a news conference this afternoon, Sherry Vill said Cuomo forcibly kissed her twice at her home in Greece, New York, after Lake Ontario flooded her home and neighborhood.
Represented by feminist lawyer Gloria Allred, Vill read a short statement that described Cuomo’s ham-handed come-on in front her son and aides. Cuomo visited the town to assess the disaster.
Allred produced a photo that depicts one of Cuomo’s brash busses.
Two Kisses
After Allred introduced her, Vill, 55, described what she called an obvious sexual come-on. A staff member asked Vill if Cuomo could get a look at the damage to her home. Once inside, it wasn’t long before Cuomo did what other women accuse him of doing.
“The governor looked at me, approached me, took my hand and pulled me to him,” Vill said:
He leaned down over me and kissed my cheek. I was holding my small dog in my arms and I thought he was going to pet my dog. But instead, he wedged his face between the dog and mine and kissed me on the other cheek in what I felt was [a] highly sexual manner. I wasn’t expecting that at all.
“That’s what Italians do,” Cuomo said, Vill recalled. “Kiss both cheeks.”
Vill said that she is Italian and that such spontaneous affection is reserved for family, but in any event as he left the house, Cuomo offered a parting commentary.
“You are beautiful,” he told her, she said.
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When Vill joined him outside, she said, the clumsy come-ons continued.
“Is there anything you want,” he asked her, Vill recalled:
He then leaned down on top of me and while still holding one of my hands, he forcibly grabbed my face with his other big hand and kissed my cheek, again in a very aggressive manner. I felt like I was being manhandled, especially because he was holding my face and he was kissing my cheek again. I could not use my other hand to stop him because he did it so quickly, and I was also holding my dog with my other hand. The way he looked at me, and his body language, made me very uncomfortable.
Years of dealing with men in business, Vill said, taught her the difference between an innocent gesture and an obvious sexual come-on.
Vill said she “thought the craziness was over” after Cuomo left. But then she received a voicemail from one of the governor’s aides, who asked if she wanted to attend an event in town. The aide noticeably did not invite her husband or family. Vill said that neighbors and townsfolk called her the governor’s new girlfriend.
After Vill finished, Allred shared photos of the Close Encounter of the Cuomo Kind.
Vill, of course, isn’t the only woman to accuse Cuomo of grabbing and kissing. Accuser 1, Lindsey Boyland, says Cuomo cornered and kissed her as she tried to leave his office.
Anna Ruch, Accuser 3, says Cuomo grabbed and kissed her at a wedding reception.
Subpoenas Issued
Just before the latest accuser stepped forward, the Post also reported that Cuomo’s top lieutenants “have been subpoenaed by the state Attorney General’s Office as part of its investigation into sexual-harassment accusations against the governor.”
They include Cuomo consigliere Melissa DeRosa.
The officials are being asked to produce documents related to the investigation, which is also probing DeRosa’s role according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ex-aide Ana Liss, who has accused Cuomo of inappropriate conduct, said investigators questioned her about DeRosa’s behavior as communications director in 2014 in Albany, the newspaper said.
“They were trying to figure out if I was targeted by Melissa,” Liss told the paper, adding that she told probers she didn’t interact much with DeRosa at the time.
“No one should be surprised that the AG’s office is issuing requests for documents and interviewing witnesses, including many who work for the governor,” Paul Fishman, a lawyer for the Cuomo administration told the paper.
“That happens in every investigation, and it’s wildly premature to speculate what it means. Good, thorough and fair investigations take time.”
DeRosa’s role is of particular interest because she is one of the most powerful political people in New York, as Bloomberg reported.
DeRosa, the Post reported, “has stood by her longtime boss amid the accusations of inappropriate behavior, as accusations of her own bullying and berating behavior in the workplace came to light.”
DeRosa stands accused of trying to intimidate the women who have accused Cuomo.
H/T: New York Post, 6News Albany
