Vito Lopez resigned from the state Assembly after a 68-page report detailed sexual abuse allegations against him.
Two women who say they were sexually harassed by former Assemblyman Vito Lopez when they were working in his office filed federal and state lawsuits against him and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Thursday.
Victoria Burhans alleges that Lopez offered her a tour of the governor’s Executive Mansion in Albany if she stayed overnight with him in a “Lincoln Bedroom” situation. The lawsuit also claims that Lopez told Burhans to have sex with a Cuomo official to help get Lopez’s housing bill passed, The New York Post reports.
Lopez resigned from the Assembly last month after two reports revealed that he sexually harassed at least eight female staffers, from commenting on their clothes, touching them, ordering them to massage him and telling them to stay overnight with him.
Burhans and Chloe Rivera allege that Lopez could not have gotten away with his inappropriate conduct without Silver’s “assistance,” the Post reports.
Silver allegedly knew that two other women were sexually harassed by Lopez months before Burhans and Rivera were hired, according to court papers.
Since Lopez’s resignation, more pressure has fallen on Silver to step down.
