ALBANY — Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple defended his office’s handling of sexual misconduct charges against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo a day after a criminal summons was filed.
Apple told WGDJ "Talk 1300" Radio on Friday that he’s confident the case was handled appropriately even though the summons charging Cuomo with misdemeanor forcible touching was issued without the knowledge of his victim or approval of the local district attorney.
“I’m not sure what the district attorney’s investigation has as of this point, but we did separate investigations,” Apple said. “We’re very comfortable with the information that we’ve obtained and our victim has been in contact with us.”
The sheriff added that he was surprised when the document was made public, blaming the courts for prematurely releasing the summons.
“We were a bit taken aback,” Apple said. “It happened so fast.
"It happens, and at the end of the day, the facts are the facts,” he added.
The complaint accused Cuomo of putting his hand under a woman’s shirt and groping her last December at the Executive Mansion, his official residence.
Some of the alleged evidence against the 63-year-old Democrat includes text messages from his personal cellphone, swipe card records from the day and his alleged victim’s testimony to investigators working for the attorney general’s office.
The charges come two months after Cuomo resigned in the wake of a bombshell report from Attorney General Letitia James’ office detailed sexual harassment allegations made by 11 women.
While the victim’s name was redacted in the filing, former aide Brittany Commisso has publicly accused Cuomo of groping her at the executive mansion in Albany late last year.
Commisso’s attorney Brian Premo, also appearing on Talk 1300 on Friday morning, said the 33-year-old will “always will be a cooperative victim. And she just wants justice.”
Albany County District Attorney David Soares, whose office would handle the prosecution should the case go to trial, said Thursday he had been caught off guard by the filing.
“Like the rest of the public, we were surprised to learn today that a criminal complaint was filed in Albany City Court by the Albany County Sheriff’s Office against Andrew Cuomo,” Soares said.
Apple said Friday that, per the summons, Cuomo is to appear in Albany Criminal Court on Nov. 17.
Commisso, who revealed her identity days after James’ report was released, says Cuomo groped her breast when they were alone in his second-floor office at the governor’s mansion late last year.
After shutting the door, “he came back to me and that’s when he put his hand up my blouse and cupped my breast over my bra,” she said. “I exactly remember looking down, seeing his hand, which is a large hand, thinking to myself, ‘Oh, my God. This is happening.’”
Cuomo has repeatedly denied ever touching anyone inappropriately and his legal team has repeatedly alleged that James was out to “ambush” him as she is poised to announce her own gubernatorial run.
In an interview with the attorney general’s investigators, Cuomo said, “I would have to lose my mind to do such a thing.”
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