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A businesswoman on Monday became the 10th woman to accuse New York’s Andrew Cuomo of misconduct and claimed he kissed her on the cheeks “in a very sexual way.”
In a virtual press conference, Sherry Vill, 55, stated that the events date back to 2017, during a tour of the governor’s tour of the Rochester region of Lake Ontario, following a flood.
As part of his trip, Cuomo visited Vill’s flood-stricken home and twice kissed Vill on the cheeks, who claimed she had been “shocked” by the politician’s behavior to the point that she didn’t understand what was going on.
At one point during the visit, the governor told her she was beautiful, which made the businesswoman feel “even more uncomfortable.”
Vill explained that after trying to avoid Cuomo, before leaving the house the governor again approached her and in “a very aggressive manner” grabbed her face with one hand and gave her another kiss on the cheek.
At the press conference, which she held together with the famous lawyer Gloria Allred, the lawyer showed three photos in which the governor can be seen talking to Vill.
One of them, of very poor quality, shows the moment in which Cuomo kisses the businesswoman.
It is a photo taken by Vill’s daughter, obtained from a home video that was recorded during the politician’s visit and that the young woman spread on social networks with the caption “the governor kissing my mother”.
Allred assured that her client will not, for the time being, file any lawsuit against the governor, but will offer her testimony to the New York District Attorney’s Office, which has begun an investigation into Cuomo’s alleged improper behavior.
“Women like Sherry will no longer remain silent. They refuse to be intimidated by powerful men,” the lawyer said.
Cuomo has been embroiled in several political scandals since the start of 2021, from alleged sexual harassment, to favoring his family to take covid-19 tests, to abuse of power and mismanagement of nursing homes during the early stages of the pandemic in the spring of 2020.
Numerous voices within and outside his party, the Democrats, have called for his resignation, and the state legislature, dominated by Democratic lawmakers, has begun an investigation into the harassment allegations to determine whether there is enough evidence to initiate impeachment proceedings against the governor.
