Cuomo arraignment delayed after NY prosecutor warns of ‘potentially defective’ complaint

An Albany City Court judge has delayed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) arraignment on a misdemeanor charge of groping a woman after a prosecutor warned that the criminal complaint filed last week was “potentially defective.”

In a letter obtained by NEWS10, Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares asked a county court to push Cuomo’s arraignment back for 60 days while he investigates the case. 

“Unfortunately, the filings in this matter are potentially defective in that the police-officer-complainant failed to include a sworn statement by the victim such that the People could proceed with prosecution on these papers,” reads the letter. 

A spokesperson for Soares’s office told The Hill that the case was adjourned until Jan. 7. Cuomo was initially scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 17.

The Hill has reached out to an attorney for Cuomo for comment.

Cuomo was charged last week with a misdemeanor charge of forcible touching for allegedly groping a woman under her shirt in December, when he was still governor.

Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said last Friday that his office reviewed hundreds of documents, interviewed several witnesses and executed several search warrants in the case. The information was then sent to the court, after which a summons was issued.

Apple further said that that process is normal, but the “relatively accelerated rate” at which the charge came back caught him by surprised.

The sheriff added that he “would have liked” to speak with Soares, and Cuomo’s attorney Rita Glavin, before the charge was filed.

Soares said in his letter that the complaint included a portion of a transcript of the statement that the victim gave in a separate proceeding, which excluded other parts of her testimony where she described the same acts. 

Cuomo resigned in August after New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) released a report which revealed that the governor had harassed multiple women while in office, and had retaliated against one who spoke up.