ALBANY (1010 WINS) -- The last district attorney investigating allegations of sexual misconduct by Andrew Cuomo said Monday that he will not pursue charges against the former governor.
Oswego County D.A. Gregory Oakes confirmed that his office would not file charges against Cuomo in connection with allegations made by Virginia Limmiatis, a National Grid employee whose chest the ex-gov allegedly touched during an event in the Upstate county nearly five years ago.
Oakes said there “is not a sufficient legal basis to bring criminal charges” against Cuomo and that his decision was “based solely upon an assessment of the law” and whether his office could “establish a legally sufficient case.”
Oakes is the fifth and final D.A. in the state to not pursue criminal charges against Cuomo in connection with state Attorney General Letitia James’ independent investigation, which detailed the allegations of 11 women. District attorneys for Manhattan, Albany, Nassau County and Westchester County have already said they wouldn’t charge Cuomo.
Limmiatis alleged that she was waiting in a line to meet Cuomo after he spoke at a May 2017 conservation event when he touched her inappropriately.
Cuomo came up to Limmiatis, who was wearing a National Grid shirt at the time, and “ran two fingers across her chest, pressing down on each of the letters as he did so and reading out the name of [National Grid] as he went,” according to James’ probe.
In his statement, Oakes praised Limmiatis for her testimony, saying he “found her to be reliable and reasonable” and “seemingly motivated only by an earnest desire to do the right thing.”
“She was plainly upset by her interaction with then Gov. Cuomo as she expressed immediately to friends and family,” Oakes said. “Knowing that the then-Governor would use his bully-pulpit to deny the allegations and perhaps attempt to discredit her, she nevertheless stepped forward to tell her truth during the Attorney General’s investigation. She has further made herself available to my office. I commend her bravery and respect her courage.”
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a statement Monday that the Oswego D.A. investigation had been “a farce […] from the beginning” and that photos from the 2017 event proved it.
“As now five DAs have verified, none of the accusations in Tish James’ fraud of a report have stood up to any level of real scrutiny,” Azzopardi said. “This has always been a political hit job to further the Attorney General’s own ambitions, which both reeks of prosecutorial misconduct and has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars. As we’ve said since the beginning, the truth will come out.”
In a separate statement, Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin said, “The photographic evidence that the AG’s report hid from the public indisputably showed that Governor Cuomo did not act improperly. Truth and the rule of law prevailed, not politics or mob mentality.”
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