New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 1993, according to a legal summons filed Wednesday.
The three-page filing does not contain details of the alleged assault but names Adams, the transit bureau of the New York Police Department and the New York Police Department Guardians Association as defendants.
“Plaintiff was sexually assaulted by Defendant Eric Adams in New York, New York in 1993 while they both worked for the City of New York,” the summons reads.
The filing seeks a trial and $5 million in relief. It was filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. The woman’s attorney did not immediately return an emailed request for comment on Thursday.
One time I had a client who almost lost her case for waiting too long to file. The limitations period was two years, she waited three. During that time she had a heart attack and then got run over by a car. And then there was a pandemic. She had spent most of that time in the hospital and in rehab and when she got out everything shut down for COVID. That all was enough to find that the limitations were tolled during her periods of disability and under a COVID executive order and the case went forward.
But to wait thirty years?!
As I’m sure you’re aware, many women are shamed into hiding the fact that they were sexually assaulted. It is extremely common for the woman to either blame herself, or feel disgusting, or to be afraid of not being believed or of the police themselves. A lot of women in these categories do not report their rapes. Only about 30% of rapes are ever reported. Many women feel they need to just move past it, and many are told that explicitly.
But when you see your rapist reaching a powerful and influential political office, like the mayor of New York or the president of the United States, you might feel compelled to finally come out and say something.
You wait thirty years so there’s nobody that can 100% remember the exact details on the exact dates you allege something happened
If it’s yesterday, people can testify they saw you both in different places at that time. In thirty years you wouldn’t remember, that’s why there’s a time limit
