Defamation threats fly at fiery status conference in Eric Adams’ sexual assault case

MANHATTAN (CN) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ attorney demanded more proof from Adams’ sexual assault accuser in an explosive Friday hearing that devolved into threats of future litigation.

Echoing concerns he expressed in court filings earlier this week, Adams’ lawyer Alex Spiro — a prolific celebrity lawyer who has previously represented the likes of Elon Musk and Aaron Hernandez — lamented the supposed vagueness of the sexual assault accusation against the mayor.

“Perhaps most importantly, they don’t identify the date upon which this alleged incident occurred … they just say sometime in 1993, which we believe violates due process,” Spiro told New York Supreme Court Justice Richard Latin at the virtual status conference.

Megan Goddard, the attorney representing Adams’ accuser Lorna Beach-Mathura, could be seen shaking her head as Spiro spoke. Beach-Mathura is accusing Adams, then a city transit cop, of “demanding a quid pro quo sexual favor” while they were coworkers at the Transit Department for the City of New York in 1993.

But Spiro argued on Friday that the plaintiff failed to provide any details as to what the quid pro quo actually entailed. He said that it’s still unclear what, if anything, Adams promised Beach-Mathura regarding her employment, and that the allegation still lacks any corroborating information at all.

“They provided no information,” he said.

Spiro complained that the case was moving too slowly, urging the judge to intervene and force the plaintiff to hand over more proof. He reiterated Adams’ desire to get this case “either to a dismissal or a trial” as soon as possible. The judge reminded Spiro that settlement is also a possibility.

“I don’t settle cases that are fictitious, your honor,” Spiro said.

The comment enraged Goddard, who accused Spiro of trying to grab headlines from the press, “who he knows is on this call.” She said she was shocked to hear Spiro claim there was no corroborating information, considering the plaintiff turned over emails that supposedly proved that Beach-Mathura told others about the assault before she ever had standing to sue, thwarting the defense’s assertion of the whole case being a cash grab.

Beach-Mathura filed her claim in 2023 under the Adult Survivors Act, a law that gave New Yorkers one year to file sexual assault claims that otherwise fell outside the statute of limitations. The email records, Goddard argued, were from several years before the law was enacted.

“They did this whole campaign about how she’s just after money,” Goddard said. “There was no money to be had.”

Goddard added that the defendants, which also include the City of New York, the Transit Bureau of the New York Police Department and the NYPD Guardians Association — a fraternal organization of Black police officers — were the ones withholding corroborating information, not the plaintiff. She chastised the NYPD groups for failing to turn over employment data to prove that Adams and Beach-Mathura indeed worked together during the time of the claimed assault.

“Your honor, they should have to produce the employment records,” she pleaded.

Goddard then threatened to bring a defamation lawsuit against Sprio for the “fictitious” comment, a remark she said he’s made once before in the pleadings stage.

“I don’t think him calling it fictitious today in this call with the court is protected from a defamation claim, and I will bring one against him for saying that,” Goddard said. “This whole thing is the craziest gaslighting I have ever seen.”

Paul Martin, who represents the NYPD Guardians Association, threatened Goddard with a suit of his own. He said it was defamatory for her to suggest that the Guardians had access to employment records that would corroborate the sexual assault allegation.

Throughout the case, the defense has accused Beach-Mathura of trying to “backfill” her timeline of events with information from discovery. Goddard reiterated that the incident in question is more than three decades old, making specific details sparse.

“My client doesn’t know the exact date,” Goddard said. “I’m not going to pretend that she does.”

Beach-Mathura claims that she asked Adams to help her get a promotion in 1993. According to her lawsuit, Adams agreed to drive her home one night to discuss it further. They pulled into a vacant lot, the suit said, where Adams demanded oral sex. When Beach-Mathura refused, she said Adams forcibly pushed her hand onto his erect penis and ejaculated on her leg.

Adams has vehemently denied the encounter, and claims he never knew Beach-Mathura at all.

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