Accused serial intercourse harasser and mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo has tried to make hay of metropolis lawsuits involving Comptroller foe Brad Lander over points corresponding to dog-neutering.
Cuomo leveled his assault towards Lander throughout Wednesday’s mayoral debate, and the 15 lawsuits he tied to town moneyman have been later listed in a Thursday social-media publish by his marketing campaign.
However in all however one of many lawsuits, Lander was solely a nominally listed defendant, with most of the fits filed towards the Metropolis Council, a evaluation by The Submit discovered.
And not one of the fits accused Lander of private wrongdoing, in contrast to a few of the accusations levied at Cuomo.
The fits tangentially involving Lander span three mayoral administrations and embody authorized fights over a pro-smoking group preventing smoking bans, dog-neutering legal guidelines and a pair of shelter residents submitting pro-se lawsuits over asbestos allegations.
Cuomo rep Wealthy Azzopardi informed The Submit that his boss’s feedback on the talk stage have been about Lander taking concern with the state footing the previous governor’s authorized payments, stating that taxpayers have paid for fits towards the comptroller, too.
Cuomo — who resigned as governor in August 2021 over sex-harassment and COVID nursing-home controversies — has denied the entire accusations towards him.
“Lander has amnesia,” Azzopardi stated, including that the substance of the fits was irrelevant and that the accusations towards Cuomo have confronted difficulties in courtroom.
However Lander rep Dora Pekec stated substance is the difficulty.
“While Brad Lander got sued by the cigarette lobby for protecting our children from secondary smoke, predator Andrew Cuomo got sued by numerous employees for sexual abuse, faced looming impeachment, and forced taxpayers to spend $60 million trying to make these scandals go away,” Pekec stated in an announcement.
“No wonder Cuomo keeps lying about both of their records,” Pekec stated.
Lindsey Boylan, one of many first of a dozen girls who’ve accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, stated, “Cuomo will lie and smear daily of the week to serve himself.
“That’s what abusers do.”
Whereas Cuomo’s debate-night remark started as a response to Lander citing the greater than $60 million taxpayers have been pressured to shell out for lawsuits concerning sexual harassment and COVID allegations towards the ex-gov, Cuomo’s feedback shortly turned to the authorized substance of the cited lawsuits.
“He was sued 15 times,” Cuomo stated on the debate. “He was sued by parents of the disabled. He was sued by homeless providers who said he was unaware, he didn’t do anything about the safety conditions. He was sued by people who said he mismanaged the pension fund.”
Lander repeatedly stated, “False, false” as Cuomo spoke.
The one cited swimsuit that challenged an official resolution by Lander was over his transfer to divest town’s pension fund from fossil fuels — with a state enchantment courtroom upholding the swimsuit’s dismissal in March.
The remainder of the fits have subsequent to nothing to do with Lander as comptroller — or Metropolis Council member.
One was a problem to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s indoor smoking ban by a pro-smoking group, whose web site states their mission is to “end the discrimination against smokers by exposing the anti-smoking lies” and insisting “smoking is normal.”
Different fits embody zoning fights, a legislation requiring pet shops to promote neutered pooches and a lawsuit by a incapacity advocacy group over emergency preparedness — which lists neither Metropolis Council nor Lander as a defendant.
When Cuomo stated Lander was “sued by the parents of the disabled,” he was referring to a pair of fits filed towards town’s Schooling Division — a routine technique to safe funding to attend a specialised college for teenagers with mind accidents.
And the fits by “homeless providers” have been a pair of almost an identical pro-se lawsuits filed towards town Division of Homeless Providers by residents of a Fort Washington shelter over COVID-19 and asbestos claims.
In each fits, Lander is listed nominally because the comptroller, typical for lawsuits filed towards town.
A search of federal courtroom data present that Lander has really been sued greater than 15 occasions — with 19 outcomes as a civil defendant.
By comparability, Cuomo seems 1,009 occasions, stretching again to his time with the federal authorities.
