The campaign worker whose sexual abuse allegations torpedoed politician Scott Stringer’s 2021 mayoral bid has filed a new lawsuit seeking unspecified damages for his unwanted attention.
Jean Kim’s eight-page filing in Manhattan Supreme Court was the latest legal round in the escalating dispute dating to the failure of Stringer’s mayoral bid, when her charges preceded her fifth in the race for the Democratic nomination.
“Kim had no romantic interest in Stringer, never dated Stringer, and was not in a romantic or sexual relationship with Stringer at any time,” the court documents say. “…Stringer abused and took advantage of the difference in power between him and Kim.”
The court document filed on March 5 seeks damages for pain, suffering, stress, humiliation, mental anguish, and damage to reputation on Kim’s behalf. She had filed a formal complaint with the State Attorney General’s office in 2021.
Stringer, in his own lawsuit last December, accused Kim of lying when he claimed the politician kissed and groped her without consent more than two decades ago while working on his 2001 public defender campaign.
His “defamatory statements” caused Stringer “emotional pain and suffering” and tarnished his “reputation, honor and dignity,” he claimed in his filing in the same court.
He insisted the two were involved in an on-off consensual relationship and remained friends for years until Stringer failed to find him a position during his 2013 run for state comptroller.
Kim said he joined the 2001 campaign in an unpaid position at Stringer’s invitation, accompanying the candidate to campaign events and working in other positions. She alleged that Stringer groped her on three occasions when the two were sharing a cab.
And she accused Stringer of kissing her before sliding his hand into the back of her pants inside a bar in the city.
“These accusations are unsubstantiated lies, which is why we filed a defamation suit three months ago,” said Milt Williams, an attorney representing Stringer.
A former Manhattan bartender also filed in 2021 on charges of sexual misconduct in 1992, alleging that Stringer groped and forcibly kissed her.
