Allegations Against Cuomo’s Brother-in-law: Covering Sexual Assault Claims?

Accusations are currently being levied against the brother-in-law and chief campaign aid of Andrew Cuomo for allegedly concealing incidents of sexual assault against one of his subordinates. Brian O’Donoghue, who is married to Cuomo’s sister Madeline and presides over Cuomo’s mayoral campaign, has been named in recent court evidence associated with an ongoing legal suit against the Aviator Sports Complex located in Brooklyn.

The suit was filed by Nicole Comito, alleging that she faced retribution after reporting accusations of sexual misconduct against her fellow gymnastics coach, Craig Brown. These claims of sexual misconduct were made by underage girls from the gymnastics program at the Aviator. According to the lawsuit, they shared with their female coach, Comito, that they were allegedly inappropriately touched by Brown during their training.

As stated in the lawsuit, these allegations were reported by Comito to her superior almost immediately. However, her claims were dismissed as false, and she was later chastised by the HR manager who admonished her to remain quiet as she was ‘only exacerbating the situation’.

The lawsuit also states that eight days post the registration of these complaints, Comito was informed that given the extent of the investigation and its implications, she would be temporarily removed from the schedule ‘until further notice’. An astonishing detail unveiled in the lawsuit was that the Aviator seemed to have expedited the process of providing legal counsel to Brown soon after the investigation commenced.

In her initial 2021 complaint, Comito held the Aviator’s management company, Arklow-FBF LLC, accountable for breaching the city’s human rights law. The grounds for this allegation were that she was supposedly terminated for bringing the sexual abuse accusations to the forefront.

Recent court documents suggest that the executive office of the Aviator had ‘actively sought the termination’ of Comito, following her report of these allegations. There are also charges against them for not promptly reporting the accusations of sexual abuse to their insurers and attempting to obstruct Comito from receiving a liability insurance policy payout as a part of her lawsuit.

Deposition transcripts filed within the ongoing case highlighted that Comito’s absence from work was intended as a temporary arrangement while the investigation was ongoing. There were assertions of a ‘miscommunication’ among the staff, leading Comito to believe that she had been dismissed.

Confirmation of the ongoing investigation into these sexual abuse accusations was given by a spokesperson for the National Parks as of July. Brown, the accused, who is yet to face any criminal charges, was unavailable for any comments on the matter.

In a surprising turn of events, one of the young girls’ parents withdrew their accusation after viewing footage of the girl accidentally bumping into her chest. Attempts to conduct interviews with the other victims and their parents were met with no success.

Lastly, a scathing sworn affidavit signed by the parents of the third accuser condemned Aviator for its handling of the claims. The document expressly accuses Aviator of initiating a calculated cover-up to protect Craig Brown, thereby denying the students and their parents the respect they deserved in such trying circumstances.