March 19, 2024
This….doesn’t look good.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing claims of sexual assault from 30 years ago in a new lawsuit, The New York Daily News reports.
Lorna Beach-Mathura has accused Adams of exposing himself to her and demanding oral sex in exchange for help to secure a job in 1993. She came forward in November 2023 after filing a notice of claim saying she planned to sue Adams for sexual assault but never included specifics.
Filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on March 18, Beach-Mathura alleged the incident took place when she and Adams worked for the city’s Transit Police Department. At the time, both were members of the city’s Black police officers’ organization, the Guardians Association, where Adams was a high-ranking official.
She seeks $5 million in damages.
Beach-Mathura told a number of people about the incident, including current and former NYPD transit cops. However, she never came forward formally out of fear of retaliation from Adams, the Guardians and others listed as defendants in the suit.
Beach-Mathura alleges Adams picked her up after work in his car and drove to a vacant lot close to the Hudson River.
The accuser said she went to Adams about her employment issue because she found him to be “inspiring.” The suit stated initially that Beach-Mathura coordinated with Adams to give her a ride home to Coney Island, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, to talk, but once she realized they were headed toward the river, she became “nervous and scared.”
After explaining her woes, the suit claims “Adams told Plaintiff that he thought he could help her but that he ‘also needed some help.”’ He allegedly rubbed his genitals and told her he wanted oral sex in exchange. The lawsuit then claimed “while repeatedly cajoling, demanding, and begging Plaintiff for oral sex, Defendant Adams unzipped his pants” and exposed himself.
After denying his advances, the suit claimed Adams “assaulted” Beach-Mathura “by grabbing her hand and placing it on his exposed” genitals, propositioning her to perform a sexual act with her hand. She told him “no” repeatedly and tried to pull her hand away. Beach-Mathura then “tried to remain calm” out of fear of being raped.
“Plaintiff was frightened not only due to Defendant Adams’ appalling conduct but also because she knew that he, as a police officer, had at least one loaded gun in the car,” her lawsuit documented.
Adams reportedly finished the job himself after she rebuffed his advances. Adams’ semen, according to the lawsuit, landed on the accuser’s thigh and stocking. Adams then dropped her off at the Chambers St. subway station, claiming he had to return to work.
Beach-Mathura left city government in 1994 and now works as a public school teacher in Florida. She says never received the help she requested from Adams.
Adams has denied any accusations of wrongdoing from the woman, saying, “It absolutely never happened,” according to Patch.
“While we review the complaint, the mayor fully denies these outrageous allegations and the events described here; we expect full vindication in court,” NYC corporation counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix said in a statement.
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