Wednesday, January 05, 2022

5 January 2022: Opinions - "Of Course Cuomo Got Away With It"

Of Course Cuomo Got Away With It

AJ Dellinger's opinion piece is one of the first media reactions to news that Andrew M. Cuomo would not face any criminal charges in Albany County related to 'credible' claims he sexually harassed New York state government employee Brittany Commisso while he was New York's governor. Dellinger puts Albany County District Attorney David Soares action into context:

This marks the third instance of state prosecutors opting not to charge Cuomo. Last month, the district attorneys in Nassau and Westchester counties similarly announced that they would not attempt to try the former governor based on allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment. Nassau County, on Long Island, was initially looking into a case in which a state trooper accused Cuomo of inappropriately touching her while she was protecting him during a 2019 event. The Westchester district attorney’s office, which oversees the county just north of New York City, was looking into charges that Cuomo kissed two women who did not invite his advances. In both cases, the attorneys described the allegations as “credible” but not criminal.

These dismissals suggest that Cuomo will ultimately escape his harassment scandal without any criminal charges — despite the fact that all of the public allegations have been viewed as credible so far, as well as the fact that the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, issued a 165-page report that provided evidence from several victims and nearly 200 witnesses who corroborated accounts of Cuomo behaving badly.

Cuomo has been accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by 11 women — mostly state employees, including some who worked in the governor’s office. While Cuomo spent months denying the allegations, he eventually came to say that he will “accept full responsibility” for his own behavior when he stepped down from the governorship in August 2021.

Despite this supposed acceptance of responsibility, it appears Cuomo won’t actually be held responsible for his actions in the courts. Sure, he and his brother — Chris Cuomo, who reportedly tried to help his brother defend himself from the accusations — are laughingstocks now, but the victims of Cuomo’s actions deserve justice. It looks like they won’t get any help in that area from the state’s prosecutors.

That assessment appears correct. In the case of Albany County DA David Soares, it also was predictable.

Churchill: Soares will crumble if target is powerful like Cuomo

Albany Times-Union columnist has followed Soares' long public career. In this opinion column, he points to Soares' history as Albany County's DA to explain his strange choice to avoid charging Andrew M. Cuomo for the "credible" claims alleged by Brittany Commisso.

If we could give David Soares a belated Christmas gift, it would have to be a box filled with a virtue Albany County's district attorney lacks. Courage.

If that sounds harsh, consider: When has Soares been willing to go after a big fish? When has he prosecuted someone whose power and influence presents a risk to his own?

Soares' office is just a few blocks from a state Capitol where corruption has at times been blatant. Yet Soares, a Democrat first elected in 2004, has never shown in any interest in ruffling state political feathers, even as other prosecutors have charged and convicted lawmaker after lawmaker....

At this point, Churchill provides two prominent examples of Soares refusal to pursue charges against the politically connected in New York. Picking up Churchill's commentary focusing on Soares' dropping charges in the Brittany Commisso case:

The pattern is clear. If a case promises to be difficult or controversial, you can bet Soares will crumble and a trial will be avoided. So, it was no surprise to learn this week that he'd decided against prosecuting Andrew Cuomo on a charge that the former governor groped Brittany Commisso in the Executive Mansion.

Few who have followed Soares' career believed he would prosecute the case. Doing so, after all, would have been completely out of character. Soares happily hunts critters but puts down his rifle when big game wanders into view.

Yes, similar criticism could be leveled at other district attorneys. Yes, the odds of a Cuomo conviction may have been long, given the millions of dollars our former governor has at his disposal. Yes, cases that essentially pit one person's word against another's are especially challenging for prosecutors.

But Soares in a statement told us he found Commisso to be "cooperative and credible," while also claiming he remains "deeply troubled by allegations like the ones at issue here. Such conduct has no place in government or in any workplace."

If all that is true, why not go forward with the case? What's the worse that would have happened? Soares' office might have lost, but so what? He might have inconvenienced a once-powerful and potentially vengeful man, but, again, so what?

If Soares believes Commisso, he should have assumed a jury would too and taken a chance on her behalf. If he is "troubled" by such cases, he should have stuck his neck out for women who have been victimized. He should have let the taxpaying citizens of New York see the evidence for themselves.

But he didn't. The strange thing here is that based on Soares' comments, he believes Andrew M. Cuomo engaged in an incident of forcible touching with state government employee Brittany Commisso, but is so afraid of possibly losing that he won't even pursue the charges he believes are credible. But his history suggests he's really more afraid of pursuing the case and possibly winning.

Because if he did, what would successfully prosecuting Andrew M. Cuomo mean for the political career of a prosecutor who has made his reputation looking the other way when the interests of the politically-connected are involved?

In retrospect, the Albany County Sheriff's Office's action to file the charges independently of coordination with Soares' office did succeed in one way, if not in compelling Soares to pursue the case. The action prevents Soares from being able to let the case slide without focused public attention. Soares will have to face political consequences with the public for his strange choice.

Here is related background from the timeline:

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