NEW YORK (AP) — 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.
In remarks to reporters on Thursday, Adams denied sexually assaulting anyone and said he did not remember meeting the woman.
“It absolutely did not happen. I don't recall ever meeting this person and I would never harm anyone in that magnitude. It did not happen,” Adams said, according to a video posted by a reporter to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “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.”
Adams, a Democrat, was a New York City police officer who rose to the rank of captain before entering politics. He served as a state senator and Brooklyn borough president before becoming mayor.
The summons was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a special New York law that created a year-long suspension of the usual time limit to sue over an alleged sexual assault. The suit against Adams was filed just before the window to bring cases under the law was scheduled to close after Thanksgiving.
The law has has cleared the way for a wave of lawsuits against famous men accused of sexual misconduct, with a slew of cases coming in the final weeks before it was set to expire. Over the past year, the act has led to more than 2,500 lawsuits, including cases against former President Donald Trump, hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and comedian and actor Russell Brand.
The filing comes as Adams has been dogged by an FBI investigation into his 2021 campaign that prompted agents to seize his phones and raid the home of his chief campaign fundraiser.
The New York Times and New York Post have reported that part of the investigation involves examining whether Adams inappropriately tried to help the government of Turkey get city approval to open a 35-story skyscraper housing diplomatic facilities in 2021, despite concerns about the tower’s fire safety systems.
Adams has sidestepped questions about the FBI investigation but has maintained he did nothing wrong.
