The state comptroller’s office is disputing that taxpayers should have to pay more than $700,000 in legal fees that attorneys for Andrew M. Cuomo’s former secretary, Melissa DeRosa, left, have billed the state over the past several years. The invoices involved legal work after she was dismissed as a defendant in a State Police investigator’s ongoing federal lawsuit that accuses Cuomo of sexual harassment.
Mary Altaffer, STF / AP
ALBANY — The taxpayer-funded legal fees for three sexual harassment lawsuits filed against Andrew M. Cuomo and his former aides have topped $23.4 million, with more than half of that expended for a case in which a State Police investigator alleges the former governor kissed her on the cheek and discussed sexually charged topics when she was assigned to his security detail.
But the state comptroller’s office is disputing that taxpayers should have to pay more than $700,000 in legal fees that attorneys for Cuomo’s former secretary, Melissa DeRosa, have billed the state over the past several years — after she was dismissed as a defendant in the investigator’s ongoing federal lawsuit.
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In December, DeRosa and her attorneys filed a complaint in state Supreme Court against the comptroller’s office, challenging the agency’s rejection of invoices that they submitted to the state after a federal judge had dismissed DeRosa as a defendant in the investigator’s lawsuit. They contend the additional legal work on DeRosa’s behalf was necessary to oppose a motion challenging her dismissal as a defendant, and also to oppose a motion the investigator’s attorneys had filed requesting permission to file an amended federal complaint.
The federal judge rejected the investigator’s motion for reconsideration of the dismissal of DeRosa as a defendant in August 2024, and denied the application to file an amended complaint in April 2025.
“Because neither petitioners nor the plaintiff knew the reasoning behind the dismissal, petitioners continued to participate in the case to protect Ms. DeRosa’s rights in the event the decision was not upheld or the complaint was amended,” Catherine M. Foti, one of DeRosa’s attorneys, wrote in a recent court filing explaining why their work in the litigation had continued.
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Foti is a partner with Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello, a Manhattan law firm that also represented former Cuomo adviser Richard Azzopardi in the sexual harassment case. The judge also dismissed the claims against Azzopardi.
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In the dispute over DeRosa’s legal fees, the comptroller’s office filed a response asserting that DeRosa’s attorneys unnecessarily continued “preparing for and attending depositions and status conferences” after “she was no longer a party to any action or proceeding against her.”
The disagreement began nine months ago when the comptroller’s office sent Foti a letter asserting her firm had “apparently continued to voluntarily participate in the case and … requested reimbursement for services rendered on discovery-related activity related to other named parties and non-parties.” The comptroller’s letter said other tasks they billed to the state included preparing for and attending 10 depositions, participating in court conferences and filing letters in various discovery matters.
“We also note that it appears from the record that many appearances by your firm were simultaneously on behalf of both Ms. DeRosa and Mr. Azzopardi,” although his legal costs in the case had not been authorized under state Public Officers Law.
In August, Foti sent a lengthy letter to the comptroller’s office detailing the reasons their legal work on behalf of DeRosa had continued after she was dismissed as a defendant in the case. She also noted that the legal expenses of DeRosa and Azzopardi had been separated and the state was not billed for any work on his behalf by the firm.
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“A review of the record will demonstrate that, except for limited situations where Ms. DeRosa was the actual focus of a document demand or the deposition testimony, this firm took necessary action, but no more than necessary, action to preserve Ms. DeRosa’s rights,” Foti wrote. “In fact, throughout the defense of the case, this firm relied on the attorneys representing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to take the laboring oar on all discovery disputes, document review, deposition preparation and examination of witness.”
Foti said although they participated in depositions after DeRosa was dismissed as a defendant, they did so “for purposes of protecting the record and remaining knowledgeable of any potential evidence that might implicate claims against Ms. DeRosa.” She added that they did not “repeat the work done already by the Cuomo team.”
But attorneys for the state have argued that DeRosa and her attorneys are seeking “to saddle New York taxpayers with over $700,000 in legal fees incurred after DeRosa obtained an order dismissing all claims against her in federal court.”
Four years ago, Cuomo became embroiled in a five-month legal battle in which the state attorney general’s office fought against having the state represent him or pay for his legal costs in the federal lawsuit filed by the female State Police investigator, who has accused him of facilitating her assignment to his protective detail and then sexually harassing her.
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But in January 2023, a judge ruled the state must cover Cuomo’s legal costs. Since then, the fees being covered by taxpayer dollars have soared.
One of the cases involved a federal sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Charlotte Bennett, a former aide. She settled her lawsuit with the state last year for $450,000. That case cost the state more than $9.8 million in legal expenses.
A third case filed against Cuomo involved allegations from Brittany Commisso, a former aide who accused Cuomo of groping her during an encounter at the governor’s mansion in 2020. Last year, she agreed to a $450,000 settlement in that case, which was filed in state Supreme Court in Albany and cost New York taxpayers about $1.2 million to defend Cuomo.
Cuomo had opposed closing Commisso’s case, even after the state agreed to settle it. His attorneys allege text messages that were received from pretrial discovery disclosures undermined Commisso’s account of what happened at the mansion and that they wanted those records unsealed and made public.
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Kevin Mintzer, an attorney who represented Commisso along with attorney Mariann Wang, responded to Cuomo’s arguments last year, saying “there are no documents that rebut or ‘conclusively disprove’ the claims that (Commisso) has made in this case.”
A judge rejected Cuomo’s motion to unseal the text messages last year, citing his then-campaign for New York City mayor, which was not successful. State Supreme Court Justice Denise A. Hartman noted in her ruling that the former governor’s “desire to ‘out’ (Commisso’s) text messages in the hopes of obtaining public vindication heading into the 2025 New York City mayoral general election does not establish the kind of prejudice that would justify” keeping the case open.
Attorneys for the state of New York had also opposed Cuomo’s efforts, noting that the litigation in the case has been costly and that closing the case would prevent taxpayers from incurring additional legal expenses.
“As the state has indicated, New York state taxpayers have been forced to expend significant amounts of money to defend this and other civil actions brought against Cuomo already,” Hartman wrote in her decision. “Cuomo has not advanced any viable argument for why the taxpayers of this state should continue to foot the bill for his continued use of civil litigation discovery devices to further his efforts to resurrect his public image.”
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Cuomo’s attorneys Rita Glavin and Theresa Trzaskoma released a statement after the settlement with Commisso was announced, claiming that it “does not include any admission of liability, (and) is intended to end Ms. Commisso’s failed efforts to leverage a meritless lawsuit into a multimillion-dollar payday while hiding the truth from the public.”
They also characterized the amount of the settlement in court filings as a “low ball” settlement. But the judge noted in her decision that his attorneys were silent on the fact that Bennett had settled her lawsuit with the state for the same amount — $450,000.
While Cuomo has consistently denied harassing anyone, he resigned in August 2021 rather than face an impeachment proceeding.
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