New York City’s law department asked the State Supreme Court to let the city stop representing former Mayor Eric Adams in a 2024 civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault.
“Based on my review of new evidence since the original decision to represent him was made, I have determined that he is not entitled to representation by the city in this matter,” Steve Banks, the city’s Corporation Counsel, said in a statement.
It’s not immediately clear what the new information is.
Adams was accused by a former colleague, Lorna Beach-Mathura, of pressuring her in 1993 to perform oral sex in a car after she sought career advice, according to the complaint. Adams then grabbed her hand and placed it on his erect penis, and when she refused, he masturbated in front of her, she alleged.
Former Corporation Counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix, an Adams appointee, had said that the law department was obligated to represent him in the case because the alleged incident took place while he was employed by the NYPD transit bureau.
But the General Municipal Law requires the city only to represent employees accused of acts performed during the discharge of their official duties that did not violate the rules and regulations of the agencies they work for — giving the Corporation Counsel latitude to determine which employees the city chooses to represent.
A spokesperson for Adams, Todd Shapiro, said in a statement that the former mayor “has been proven innocent before and remains confident that the facts will ultimately prevail.”
It’s the latest sexual assault or harassment case filed against Adams allies to have the city-funded representation dropped under the Mamdani administration.
Last week, the Law Department also dropped former senior advisor Timothy Pearson and former NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey in their cases alleging repeated sexual misconduct at work.
As of this week, taxpayers have paid more than $761,000 to the law firm of Wilson Elser to represent Pearson. Total public payouts to lawyers representing Adams and Maddrey were not immediately available.
The issue of the taxpayers paying the legal bills of Pearson and Maddrey came up during a confirmation hearing by the City Council for Banks.
Council Speaker Julie Menin celebrated the move saying in a statement last week “New Yorkers should not be footing the bill for legal defenses tied to allegations of workplace misconduct.”
A spokesperson for the law department said he wasn’t aware of any other cases where Banks is pulling city-funded representation.
The attorney representing Roxanne Ludemann, the former NYPD officer who filed suit accusing Pearson of sexual harassment and retaliation when she complained to the department about his behavior, on Tuesday filed a motion seeking a judgment against the city and the Economic Development Corp. (EDC), the quasi-city agency that employed Pearson.
The loss of city-funded lawyers could be problematic for Adams, who still has unpaid legal fees from his since-dropped federal corruption case.
His legal defense fund has raised $1.8 million, but his legal expenses have grown to around $6.2 million, public filings show.
