A New York City woman claims that Mayor Eric Adams sexually assaulted her three decades ago, masturbating in front of her when she turned down his advances, according to a bombshell $5 million lawsuit filed Monday.
The claims add another layer of tumult to Adams’ already-tumultuous tenure, which has the first-term mayor facing an FBI investigation into allegations he helped the Turkish government sidestep the city’s fire code to erect a 35-story diplomatic facility. Federal agents in November raided the Bronx home of Adams’ top fundraiser, and seized Adams’ phones and iPad, as part of the probe. Adams reached the rank of captain in the NYPD, was elected to the New York State Senate after he retired in 2006, and was elected mayor in 2021.
“I am proud to file this complaint on behalf of my client, a woman whose strength astonishes me,” Megan Goddard, a lawyer for accuser Lorna Beach-Mathura, told The Daily Beast in an emailed statement shortly after she filed the suit in New York State Supreme Court.
“She knew that filing this lawsuit would cause her significant personal challenges but she did so nevertheless, because she believes sexual abusers must be held to account, no matter who they are. Her fearlessness and quest for justice are as inspiring as they are important.”
A City Hall spokesperson did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Monday. However, at the time the initial summons was filed, and the basic allegations were revealed, Adams, a Democrat, insisted he was innocent.
“It absolutely did not happen,” he said in November. “I don’t recall ever meeting this person and I would never harm anyone in that magnitude. It did not happen. It did not happen, and that is not who I am and that is not who I’ve ever been in my professional life and, you know, it’s just something that never took place.”
In her complaint, Beach-Mathura, a former police administrative aide, says she approached Adams, then a Transit Police officer, at their stationhouse in 1993 and asked for his help with a “workplace issue,” Beach-Mathura’s complaint states. She was up for a promotion that seemed to have stalled, and Beach-Mathura says she hoped Adams, the president of the Guardians Association, a fraternal organization for Black cops, might be able to find out what was holding things up.
Being passed over for promotion was “all-too common for Black employees” during this era in the city’s history, and Beach-Mathura trusted Adams because he held himself out as a “champion” for African-Americans, the complaint states. Instead, it contends, Adams took advantage of her vulnerability, “revealing himself not to be the ‘guardian’ he purported to be, but a predator.”
Adams said he’d be glad to assist, according to the complaint. It says he asked what time Beach-Mathura’s shift ended, and when she said 7 p.m., he offered to drive her home so they could talk on the way.
Beach-Mathura was happy to not only be getting a hand from Adams, but a ride back to her place, as well, the suit goes on. However, things turned ugly along the way, it alleges.
As they were driving, Adams suddenly pulled over without explanation, the complaint continues. Beach-Mathura asked him why they were stopping, and Adams replied that he wanted to be able to concentrate on what she was saying, according to the complaint.
Adams, the complaint continues, told Beach-Mathura that he thought he could help. However, it says, he said he would need something from her in return.
Adams—who was on-duty and armed—took a stunned Beach-Mathura’s hand and “placed it on his penis,” according to the complaint. He then allegedly demanded oral sex. When she refused, Beach-Mathura alleges Adams masturbated to completion “and ejaculated on her.” Then, instead of taking her home, as promised, he dropped Beach-Mathura off at a subway station and drove away, the complaint states.
The incident was nothing less than an “astonishing abuse of power,” according to the complaint, which says Beach-Mathura, a single mother of two, knew there “was no way to safely report” at the time. When Adams later ran for mayor, his remarks and speeches on the campaign trail struck Beach-Mathura as “hypocritical and sanctimonious,” the complaint states. So, when the Adult Survivors Act came about, she felt “obligated to bring… Adams’ behavior to light,” according to the filing.
The complaint was filed in New York State Supreme Court four months after Goddard filed a summons on her behalf under the ASA, a special carve-out under state law that provided sexual assault victims a one-year “lookback window” during which they could bring claims that would have otherwise expired under the statute of limitations. Beach-Mathura announced her intention to sue about a week before the window closed.
The ASA has been used to hold several well-known names to account, including former President Donald Trump, disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, and ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Following the filing in November of Beach-Mathura’s summons, Trump lashed out on social media against the ASA, writing, “I hope that Mayor Eric Adam’s [sic], Andrew Cuomo, and all of the others that got sued based on this ridiculous law where someone can be sued decades later, and with no proof, will fight it on being totally unfair and UNCONSTITUTIONAL.”
Beach-Mathura’s suit also names the NYPD, the Guardians Association, and three “unknown entities” as defendants.
This breaking news story will be updated as more information bccomes available.
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