Discovery within the civil sexual assault go well with towards Mayor Adams has hit a snag as his legal professionals say they will’t produce his NYPD employment information as a result of they have been destroyed in Hurricane Sandy greater than a decade in the past.
Adams’ accuser, former metropolis Transit Police administrative aide Lorna Seaside-Mathura, has been looking for his NYPD personnel file as a part of her Manhattan Supreme Courtroom lawsuit towards him, filed in March 2024. The information, she has argued, will substantiate that she and Adams labored on the similar police command in Brooklyn across the time she claims he sexually assaulted her in 1993, an accusation the mayor vehemently denies.
However late this spring, Adams’ Regulation Division attorneys despatched Seaside-Mathura’s authorized staff a letter saying the mayor’s employment file was destroyed.
“With the exception of a personnel assignment record … all physical personnel records and employment folders maintained for Defendant Adams were destroyed when the Kingsland Avenue warehouse suffered extensive damage from flooding during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012,” Maxwell Leighton, an assistant company counsel on the Regulation Division, wrote within the Might 15 letter, which was made public on the court docket docket Thursday.
Hurricane Sandy destruction
Joe Marino For New York Each day Information
Surging waters from Hurricane Sandy attain New York on Oct. 29, 2012. (Joe Marino for New York Each day Information)
However Megan Goddard, Seaside-Mathura’s lawyer, mentioned she discovered it odd Adams’ attorneys are solely now offering this rationalization.
“This alleged loss was never mentioned in any prior response, letter, or conversation, not even when we specifically raised the issue in our original discovery requests or our deficiency letter,” Goddard continued. “Eric Adams became mayor nearly four years ago, and we have to ask: when did the City actually learn that these records were allegedly destroyed?”
Spokespeople for Adams and the Regulation Division didn’t instantly return requests for remark.
In a letter additionally launched on the court docket docket Thursday, Seaside-Mathura complained that Adams and the NYPD have engaged in “willful obstruction” of discovery in her consumer’s case, producing practically no information in response to repeated requests. Seaside-Mathura requested the court docket to schedule a discovery convention to deal with the matter.
In her go well with, Seaside-Mathura, who’s looking for at the least $5 million in damages, alleges Adams tried to power her to carry out oral intercourse on him in his automobile after he picked her up on the finish of a shift to speak a couple of office difficulty. When she refused, she alleges Adams masturbated and ejaculated on her leg earlier than dropping her off at a subway cease.
Adams has strongly denied the accusations, saying he can’t recall ever even assembly Seaside-Mathura.
Initially Printed: July 17, 2025 at 2:18 PM EDT
