According to the summons, the plaintiff — whom The Washington Post is not identifying because of the nature of the case — was sexually assaulted by Adams in New York in 1993 while they both worked for the city. The plaintiff accuses Adams of sexual assault, battery and employment discrimination based on her gender and sex, as well as retaliation, a hostile work environment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Adams, in a statement sent through a City Hall spokesman, denied knowing the plaintiff.
“The mayor does not know who this person is,” the spokesman said. “If they ever met, he doesn’t recall it. But he would never do anything to physically harm another person and vigorously denies any such claim.”
A lawyer for the plaintiff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit against Adams and the two departments asks for “an amount to be determined at trial but in no event less than” $5 million, plus attorneys’ fees and interest.
Adams, who became mayor in 2022, served as an officer for the New York City Transit Police and later the NYPD for more than 20 years.
The mayor also is facing scrutiny over a political matter. Earlier this month, FBI agents seized electronic devices, including phones, belonging to the mayor, according to his campaign attorney. The seizures are connected to a federal investigation into fundraising during Adams’s 2021 campaign.
Adams’s attorney, Boyd Johnson, told The Post that Adams was not accused of “any wrongdoing.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed the Adult Survivors Act into law last year, giving adult sexual assault survivors up to one year to file a lawsuit against their alleged attacker, regardless of when the alleged violation happened. The act is modeled on the state’s Child Victims Act, which was signed in 2019 and offered a similar opportunity for survivors of child sexual abuse to file suits against their alleged abusers.
The window to file such lawsuits under the law expires Friday, which has led to an avalanche of civil filings in recent weeks against powerful figures. Former president Donald Trump and Bill Cosby are among those who have been accused under the law.
