‘This did not happen:’ Adams denies 1993 sexual assault accusation

New York City Mayor Eric Adams denied an allegation that he sexually assaulted a former colleague in the transit police bureau in 1993, echoing comments that he made when the accusation first came out last year.

“This did not happen,” Adams said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “I do not recall ever meeting this person during my time in the Police Department.”

While a summons was initially filed under the Adult Survivors Act last November, the specific allegations against the mayor – who was working as a transit cop in 1993 – weren’t detailed until a full complaint was filed on Monday. In it, Lorna Beach-Mathura, a woman who said she had worked as an administrative aide in the transit bureau at the time, alleged that Adams demanded sexual favors in exchange for helping her with her career.

Beach-Mathura alleged in the complaint that Adams offered her a ride home during which they could discuss getting her a promotion but instead drove her to an empty lot. She accused Adams of demanding oral sex in exchange for his help and claimed that after she refused Adams’ entreaties several times, he forcibly put her hand on his penis. She also accused Adams of masturbating in front of her.

Beach-Mathura further claimed that female employees of the New York City Police Department and transit bureau were subjected to a “sexually hostile work environment.” In addition to Adams, the defendants named in her lawsuit include New York City, the NYPD Transit Bureau, and the NYPD Guardians Association, a fraternal group for Black NYPD employees that Adams belonged to and which Beach-Mathura said had recruited her as a member.

City Hall confirmed on Tuesday that Adams will be represented by the city and its corporation counsel Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix, rather than a private attorney. Hinds-Radix said that Adams is entitled to representation by the city as a former employee.

During the press conference, Hinds-Radix was asked by a reporter about a section of the General Municipal Law that deals with civil actions against employees, which states that the city can only provide for the defense of an employee or former employee when the corporation counsel determines that the alleged act “occurred while the employee was acting within the scope of his public employment and in the discharge of his duties and was not in violation of any rule or regulation of his agency at the time the alleged act or omission occurred.” 

Hinds-Radix, the corporation counsel, said that the corporation counsel has some discretion under the law to make determinations on when an employee or former employee is entitled to representation by the city. “The corporation counsel has, based on the law and the charter, the ability to evaluate and make the determinations – the same determinations we make with other cases,” she said.

The legal question of whether Adams was “acting within the scope of his public employment and in the discharge of his duties” during the alleged incident could become a matter of dispute. In the complaint, Beach-Mathura claimed that Adams represented to her that he was on duty and that the alleged assault took place in what seemed to be a police-issued car parked in a vacant lot near the Hudson River.

City Hall has sent out several emails over the last 24 hours containing statements of defense from some female leaders around the state, including Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte-Hermelyn, who also leads the Brooklyn Democratic Party,  and Hazel Dukes, the president of NAACP’s New York State Conference. Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar, who has become a very close ally of Adams over the last year, also released a statement defending the mayor. 

While Hinds-Radix shut down a question posed to Adams about the specifics of the lawsuit, the mayor spoke broadly in defense of his character on Tuesday. “There are people in this room that have been following me for years – I’m not talking about five years, I’m talking about 35, 40 years,” Adams said to the room full of reporters. “You know my character. I know my character. And I’m extremely disappointed that Tracey and Jordan are going through this,” he said, referring to his partner and his son, respectively.