2 October 2023: Judge Drops Cuomo Aides DeRosa, Azzopardi from Trooper's Sex Harassment Lawsuit

Judge drops top Cuomo aides from trooper's sex harassment case

The federal judge hearing the sexual harassment lawsuit of female "Trooper 1" against the resigned-in-disgrace former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has acted to remove Cuomo aides Melissa DeRosa and Richard Azzopardi from the lawsuit. Here's an excerpt of Brandon J. Lyons coverage in the Albany Times-Union:

A federal judge has dismissed two of Andrew M. Cuomo’s top former aides as defendants in a lawsuit filed by a State Police investigator who accused the former governor of sexually harassment and inappropriate touching while she was assigned to his protective detail.

Former Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa and Richard Azzopardi, a former senior advisor who remains a spokesman for Cuomo, were accused in the lawsuit of aiding and abetting Cuomo’s alleged misconduct and retaliating against the female trooper.

U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall said she will issue a written order in the coming days explaining her decision to dismiss the investigator's claims against the former aides.

It is one of two federal lawsuits filed against Cuomo in connection with his alleged misconduct with 11 women, including several former aides, that was outlined in a state attorney general’s report released in August 2021. Cuomo announced his resignation a week later, but has since disputed the allegations and, while acknowledging he did things that were not appropriate, contends he did not sexually harass anyone.

The accusations by the trooper — identified in the attorney general’s report as “Trooper 1” — were among the most damaging leveled against Cuomo, who had encouraged a senior investigator on his protective detail to offer the now-32-year-old female investigator a job on the special unit that protects the governor. Three years ago, when pressed about the governor’s role in getting the trooper on his detail after meeting her at an event in New York City, Cuomo denied having any role in her transfer.

The last paragraph illustrates Cuomo's strange legal defense. He acknowledges behavior that was "not appropriate," but denies any of his inappropriate conduct is sexual harassment.

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Programming note: We've been tied up with a handful of projects behind the scenes during the past several months, which is why we haven't been on top of developments in news related to the aftermath of Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive and the sexual harassment charges that were used as an excuse to remove him from office.

Fortunately, that news coverage has been sparse, so we haven't missed all that much. What we have missed, we'll backfill in the timeline. Like this story, which occurred on 2 October 2023. Following our established practice for playing catchup with any coverage we previously missed, we'll identify when these entries were added to the timeline.

This entry was added to the timeline on 8 October 2023.