NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – A former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo who recently accused him of sexual harassment was once asked by the governor to learn the song “Danny Boy” and sing it in front of senior staff members in a “hazing” incident, her lawyer said.
Charlotte Bennett’s attorney Debra Katz told WCBS-TV that Cuomo made the “bizarre request,” asking then-aide Bennett to “memorize these lyrics.”
According to Katz, Cuomo said he wanted Bennett to sing the song for his top aide, Melissa DeRosa and other senior staffers in Albany.
“I don’t want to sing ‘Danny Boy,’” Bennett told the governor, to which he reportedly responded, ‘Sing ‘Danny Boy.’”
DeRosa told the governor, “You’re hazing her,” according to the report.
Katz said Cuomo then started singing the song by himself loudly and saying, “Sing with me.”
Bennett first came forward with sexual harassment allegations against the governor late last month. She said he asked her about her love life — including whether she ever had sex with older men — and talked about his own, saying that age differences didn't matter in relationships and he was open to dating women over 22.
“I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” Bennett told the New York Times in a report last month.
The governor has said he “never touched anyone inappropriately” and “never made any inappropriate advances” and that “no one ever told me at the time that I made them feel uncomfortable." He has called some allegations against him false.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.