Groping accusation against Cuomo referred to Albany police

An allegation of groping made by an aide of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) who said he fondled her at the Executive Mansion last year has been referred to police in Albany.

Albany Police Department spokesperson Steven Smith told The New York Times on Thursday that the department received the referral Wednesday night by New York State Police after The Times Union of Albany published additional details of an account by a sixth woman who accused the governor of unwanted sexual behavior.

The aide did not file a formal complaint over the incident. Cuomo has denied the allegation.

Smith told The New York Times that the referral doesn’t mean that the department has begun investigating, but that it has offered the victim services “as we would do with any other report or incident.”

Albany police said the referral came from state police but the governor’s acting counsel Beth Garvey said the state notified the department because the unnamed aide declined to reach out.

“As a matter of state policy when allegations of physical contact are made, the agency informs the complainant that they should contact their local police department. If they decline, the agency has an obligation to reach out themselves and inform the department of the allegation,” Garvey said in a statement to The Hill.

“In this case the person is represented by counsel and when counsel confirmed the client did not want to make a report, the state notified the police department and gave them the attorney’s information,” she said.

Beau Duffy, a spokesperson for the New York State Police, told The Hill in a statement that the department “reached out to the Albany Police yesterday to facilitate a contact with the executive chamber regarding the alleged incident.”

The Hill has reached out to the Albany Police Department for comment.

The groping accusation made against Cuomo is so far the most serious of allegations made against the governor by six women, some of them former aides, who said Cuomo made unwanted sexual advances toward them, sometimes while on the job.

Cuomo is facing calls to resign by Democratic leaders in both chambers of the state legislature as well as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) over the accusations and a separate investigation into fudging data of nursing home deaths in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuomo has rebuffed suggestions to step down.