Sheriff Says He Charged Cuomo Without Coordinating With Albany D.A.
Source: New York Times
The Albany County sheriff acknowledged on Friday that his office had not coordinated with the county’s district attorney before filing a criminal complaint that charged former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is accused of groping a female aide’s breast last year in the Executive Mansion, with a sex crime.
The move by the sheriff, Craig Apple, to file charges independently of the district attorney was unusual, especially in such a high-profile and explosive investigation, and it raised questions about the viability of the case. It was still unclear on Friday whether the district attorney, David Soares, whose office said it learned of the complaint from news reports on Thursday, was going to prosecute the charges against the former governor.
What did become clearer was the haphazard nature by which the misdemeanor charge against Mr. Cuomo was suddenly made public on Thursday afternoon, without the knowledge of the aide, Brittany Commisso; Mr. Cuomo or his lawyer; and even the sheriff.“We kind of got sandbagged ourselves and I kind of felt bad about the way that it all happened,” Sheriff Apple said at a news conference on Friday afternoon. “But the way that it went down has nothing to do with the case. The case is a very solid case.”
The sheriff did not divulge many details about his office’s investigation, but he said it was based on interviews, search warrants and a review of “hundreds if not thousands of documents.”His inquiry, he said, was separate from one being conducted by Mr. Soares’ investigators, adding that he had received assistance from the state attorney general’s office and outside lawyers hired by the State Assembly. Both entities have investigated the sexual harassment claims leveled against Mr. Cuomo, the once-fearsome three-term governor.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/nyregion/cuomo-charged-brittany-commisso.html
And the beat goes on...
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