(Ken Silva, Headline USA) New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing 30-plus-year-old sexual-harassment allegations from a former NYPD employee who filed a lawsuit over the matter last month.
The lawsuit from former NYPD cop Lorna Beach-Mathura comes several months after she initially aired her allegations against Adams last November—some 30 years after the fact.
According to Beach-Mathura, she was an employee of the NYPD’s Transit Bureau, and had sought mentorship from Adams, who was a leader at the time of a fraternal organization for black NYPD officers. Beach-Mathura said she had been repeatedly passed over for promotions—a fact she attributed to being a black woman—and asked Adams for advice.
However, “Instead of helping plaintiff get fair treatment … Adams preyed on her perceived vulnerability, demanding a quid pro quo sexual favor and sexually assaulting plaintiff,” her lawsuit said.
“Adams claimed he would assist Plaintiff with an employment issue, only instead to drive her to a vacant lot and request oral sex from her. When she refused, Defendant Adams forcibly pushed Plaintiff’s hand onto his erect penis, and then, after she removed her hand, masturbated himself to completion and ejaculated on her hand.”
Beach-Mathura claimed she told her friends—including a former boss whom she remains close with—about Adams’s assault on her at the time it occurred. But she said she didn’t file a formal complaint because of fear for retaliation.
It wasn’t until when Adams signed into law the Adult Survivors Act last year—allowing victims of past sexual assaults to sue their assaulters—that she decided to act, she said.
“When Plaintiff learned that New York had passed a law allowing survivors of sexual assault to come forward many years later, she felt obligated to bring Defendant Adams’ behavior to light,” she said.
“Although she was well aware that she would be subject to slut-shaming accusations of lying … as well as the challenging scrutiny and media attention that go along with such smear campaigns, Plaintiff believed—and continues to believe—that putting the truth forward and holding assaulters and those who abuse their power accountable is worth the price she has already paid for coming forward,” she added.
Beach-Mathura seeks monetary compensation from the New York mayor.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
