What to know
- A Brooklyn state lawmaker has been accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman early in his legislative career when he went to her home to discuss disaster relief efforts for Haiti.
- The lawsuit, filed Friday, accuses Sen. Kevin Parker of assaulting the woman in 2004, who said she worked with Parker to coordinate the delivery of items and donations to Haiti after a devastating flood that affected the country and other neighboring Caribbean islands.
- A spokesman for Parker, a Democrat, had no comment on the lawsuit.
NEW YORK — A Brooklyn state lawmaker has been accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman early in his legislative career when he went to her home to discuss disaster relief efforts for Haiti.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, accuses Sen. Kevin Parker of assaulting the woman in 2004, who said she worked with Parker to coordinate the delivery of items and donations to Haiti after a devastating flood that affected the country and other neighboring Caribbean islands.
The lawsuit was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a special state law that created a one-year reprieve from the usual deadline for accusers to file lawsuits. The law will expire after Thanksgiving.
A spokesman for Parker, a Democrat, had no comment on the lawsuit.
A spokesman for the Senate’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, said the allegations were “extremely disturbing and we take them very seriously.”
The woman said in the lawsuit that the assault occurred when Parker went to her apartment to pick up photographs from a visit she had made to Haiti. Parker represents part of Brooklyn with a large Caribbean and Haitian community.
After they finished talking about their work, the woman got up to say goodbye when Parker grabbed her wrists, led her down a hallway to his bedroom, made a sexual comment and then raped her, according to the lawsuit.
Email and phone messages left with the woman’s attorneys have not been returned. The Associated Press It generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they reveal it publicly.
In 2005, Parker was arrested and charged with third-degree assault after punching a traffic officer who ticketed him for double parking, according to news reports at the time. That same year, a former assistant accused Parker of threatening her after she publicly complained that he pushed and hit her when she worked for him.
Parker was also convicted of misdemeanor criminal conduct in 2010 after he chased a photographer from the New York Post and damaged his camera.
2023-11-20 20:27:06
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