Jessica Bakeman, now a reporter for the WLRN in Miami, wrote that she was 25 when covering Cuomo and claimed that he often touched her without her consent – “in my arms, shoulders, lower back, my waist” – and described an incident in 2014 at a holiday party at the Executive Mansion, where he took her hand, put his arm around her, his hand on her waist and held her “firmly in place”.
Bakeman added that Cuomo did this “while indicating to a photographer that he wanted us to pose for a photo”. She said he said, in front of his colleagues, “I’m sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable? I thought we were dating,” in a moment that Bakeman described as humiliating.
Bakeman described the incident as one of the most egregious ways in which Cuomo sexually harassed her, but wrote that it was one of several incidents.
“I never thought the governor wanted to have sex with me. It wasn’t about sex. It was about power,” wrote Bakeman. “He wanted me to know that I was powerless, that I was small and weak, that I didn’t deserve the relative power that I had: a platform to hold him accountable for his words and actions. He wanted me to know that he could take my dignity away. any time with an inappropriate comment or a hand on my waist. “
CNN approached the Cuomo government for direct comments on its allegations, but at a news conference on Friday, Cuomo generally denied the new allegations and asked the public to “wait for the facts”.
“Women have the right to come forward and be heard,” Cuomo said at a news conference. “I didn’t do what was alleged, period.”
Bakeman wrote that she feels that Cuomo has intimidated men and women in her experience, but that he “never let me forget that I was a woman”.
“It is not that Cuomo spares men in his orbit of his trademark of intimidation and degrading behavior. But the way he intimidates and demeans women is different,” wrote Bakeman. “He uses touches and sexual innuendo to feed fear in us. That is the definition of sexual harassment.”
CNN also contacted Bakeman for further comments on his article.