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Police referral could put Cuomo accuser before detectives much sooner than AG's office

12 March 2021
Dan Ackermann

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's alleged mistreatment of women became a more immediate legal problem Thursday as the Albany Police Department got involved in the case.

Why it matters: A separate review by Attorney General Letitia James is still in its infancy, but the referral to local authorities by the New York State Police and Cuomo's own staff could put his latest accuser before detectives — and much more quickly.

The Times Union reported Wednesday that a woman claimed Cuomo groped her last year at the Executive Mansion in Albany, where he lives.

  • The woman did not file a report with local authorities, but the State Police and governor's own legal counsel referred the matter to them after her account was published.
  • A spokesperson for the Albany Police Department said the woman had not met with investigators, but the department had been in contact with her attorney.

The mounting legal pressure comes as Cuomo faces growing political pressure, with the impeachment decision and the National Organization for Women and 59 Democratic state lawmakers separately calling on him to resign.

Flashback: Cuomo said Sunday "there's no way I resign" over the allegations he then confronted.

  • He said doing so would disenfranchise voters and be "anti-democratic."
  • The Associated Press reported that Cuomo told New York's Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins on Sunday that state lawmakers would have to impeach him to remove him from office.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.