Local reaction to Albany County Sheriff investigating criminal complaint involving Cuomo alleged misconduct

ALBANY/ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple met with reporters to discuss a new criminal complaint filed against Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The identity of the person who filed the complaint has not been made public, but she is described as a former Executive Assistant and aide to the governor. Her complaint says the governor reached under her shirt and groped her at the governor’s mansion last year.

"I cannot get into the nature of her specific allegations at this time, obviously,” said Sheriff Apple.

“We’re in the very infant stages of this investigation. We have a lot of fact-finding to do, we have interviews to conduct, and it would be totally premature to comment on any of that."

The person who filed the complaint is one of the 11 women involved in the Attorney General’s investigation. Attorney General press secretary and senior advisor Fabian Levy sent News10NBC a statement Saturday, saying:

"We will cooperate fully with the Albany sheriff and turn over all evidence related to this complainant. Similarly, we will cooperate with all law enforcement agencies, as appropriate."

Sheriff Apple says his office has requested investigative materials from the AG. The main difference between the AG’s investigation and the sheriff’s investigation is that the AG focused more on civil claims, and the sheriff will focus on criminal claims.

Local Democratic Assemblymember Sarah Clark says she’s happy to see law enforcement taking the complainant’s claims seriously.

"My first reaction is that I’m glad to see that the sheriff is treating these as serious allegations and pursuing an investigation based on the laws,” said Clark. “We are seeing that there’s a lot of agreement even among our law enforcement and others that the attorney general’s report is credible."

If investigators can substantiate the criminal claim, Gov. Cuomo could be facing misdemeanor charges.