New York taxpayers will foot the bill for one of America’s most expensive celebrity lawyers to help the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, fight sexual assault allegations.
Alex Spiro, who made his name defending clients such as X boss Elon Musk, Jay-Z and Alec Baldwin, will defend the mayor against accusations that he forced oral sex on a female colleague when they served together on the New York police force. York in 1993.
Adams has denied claims by Lorna Beach-Mathura, 67, insisting he never met her, but has been accused of embezzling taxpayer money to pay a lawyer who normally charges $2,000 an hour.
“It’s time for politicians to be held to the same standard as ordinary workers who, when accused of misconduct, have to pay their own lawyers,” said sexual harassment lawyer Douglas Wigdor. Gothamist.
Colleagues of Alex Spiro described the famous Miami-based lawyer as a “force of nature”
New York Mayor Eric Adams insists he never met his accuser, but he has been accused of embezzling taxpayer money to pay a lawyer who normally charges $2,000 an hour.
Adams (pictured in 1993) was 33 years old at the time of the alleged sexual assault and was the head of the NYPD Transit Bureau Warden Association, an interpolice organization for black employees.
Beach-Mathura, 67, alleged in a court filing last month that Adams, 63, offered to help her get a promotion in his capacity as head of the Guardians Association, an inter-police organization to help employees. blacks.
According to the lawsuit, Adams took Beach-Mathura to a vacant lot to talk about the promotion, before telling her that he also “needed a favor” from her.
He then allegedly tried to force her to have oral sex, but when she refused, he masturbated from inside the car, the lawsuit claims.
Spiro says he has never lost a case to a jury and that his “instincts are often to support people who are under attack.”
A fellow attorney described Spiro as “a force of nature” when he was hired to defend Baldwin against involuntary manslaughter allegations stemming from the shooting death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust in 2021.
Lorna Beach-Mathura, 67, alleges sexual assault, infliction of emotional distress, sexual harassment and retaliation.
“New Mexico prosecutors have no idea what awaits them,” he added.
The Miami-based attorney began his career at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as an assistant district attorney after graduating from Harvard.
He has helped Musk secure control of Twitter and defended New England Patriots boss Robert Kraft against accusations of soliciting prostitution at a massage parlor in Florida.
Beach-Mathura’s court file alleges sexual assault, infliction of emotional distress, sexual harassment and retaliation, which she claims occurred after she reported the incident.
She also alleges gender discrimination and alleges that her career with the police department was severely hindered by being a black woman.
After beginning her law enforcement career in 1981 in the New York Police Department’s Transit Bureau, she claims she was repeatedly passed over for promotions and discriminated against.
After becoming frustrated after an NYPD official allegedly told her she would have to transfer for promotion, she turned to Adams, then 33, in his capacity as head of the Guardians, for help.
In scathing terms in the lawsuit, it is alleged that Adams “took advantage of his perceived vulnerability, demanding a quid pro quo sexual favor and sexually assaulting plaintiff, revealing himself not to be the ‘guardian’ he pretended to be, but rather a predator.”
She claims Adams picked her up after work, while he was supposedly still on duty, and took her to an empty parking lot.
Adams photographed when he was a lieutenant decades ago. The lawsuit scathingly says that he revealed that he was “not the ‘Guardian’ he pretended to be, but a predator.”
Although she thought it was disconcerting, his status as a high-ranking leader of the Guardians and a police officer put her at ease, until he “asked her for oral sex,” the lawsuit claims.
“While repeatedly cajoling, demanding, and begging Plaintiff to perform oral sex on him, Defendant Adams unbuttoned his pants and pulled out his erect penis,” the filing continues.
The lawsuit was filed in November under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which suspended the statute of limitations for claims of historical sexual assault.
Spiro said he would appear as the mayor’s co-counsel when the case is heard in the New York Supreme Court, and the city’s legal department confirmed it had retained his firm.
“We retained the Quinn Emanuel firm to serve as co-counsel and help us represent the city and mayor in this case to ensure that the Law Department can maximize its existing resources on our numerous other matters,” a spokesperson added.