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A former ABC executive producer accused Chris Cuomo of sexually harassing her at a labor party in 2005 after grabbing her butt in front of her husband and co-workers – and then called it a “warm greeting” .
Shelley Ross, a veteran television reporter, detailed the incident at an Upper West Side bar in a New York Times op-ed on Friday.
She said Cuomo sent an email in the wake telling her he was “ashamed” – but quickly tried to show that his actions were different from those of an actor accused of doing the same to a stranger in the street.
Ross said she was working as an executive producer for an ABC entertainment program at the time, but had been Cuomo’s boss on ABC’s “Primetime Live” right before that.
“I was at the party with my husband, who was sitting behind me on an ottoman sipping his Diet Coke while I chatted with work friends. When Mr. Cuomo walked into the Upper West Side bar, he walked over to me and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering a hand to firmly grasp and squeeze the cheek of my butt. She said.
“I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,” he told me with a sort of arrogant arrogance. “No you can’t,” I said pushing him back to chest level as I stepped back, revealing my husband, who had seen the whole episode up close. We quickly left.
Cuomo then sent Ross an email, dated June 1, 2005, with the subject heading: “Come to think of it … I’m ashamed.”
He compared his actions to “Heathers” actor Christian Slater, who had been arrested a month earlier for sexually harassing a woman on a New York street after grabbing her by the buttocks. The charges against Slater were subsequently dropped.
“Although my cordial greetings have depended on being happy to see you… Christian Slater was arrested for a (sort of) similar act (although born out of allegedly negative intent, unlike mine)… and as a husband, I can sympathize with not liking to see my wife cuddled as such, ”Cuomo wrote.
“So pass on my apologies to your very good and noble husband … and I apologize to you too, for putting you in such a situation.”
“Next time I will remember the lesson, no matter how happy I am to see you.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how long after the party Cuomo sent the email.
Ross, in his op-ed, asked if Cuomo was ashamed because of his actions or only because her husband had witnessed them. She also claimed that Cuomo attempted to “legally differentiate” his behavior from that of Slater.
“Mr. Cuomo can say it’s a sincere apology. I’ve always seen this as an attempt to provide legal and moral cover to escape liability, ”Ross said.
“I never thought Mr. Cuomo’s behavior was sexual in nature. Whether he understood it at the time or not, her form of sexual harassment was a hostile act meant to demean and demean her former boss in front of the staff.
Cuomo said in a statement regarding the allegations, “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not of a sexual nature. This happened 16 years ago in a public setting while she was a senior executive at ABC. I apologized to her at that point, and I really meant it.
Ross admitted that she didn’t want Cuomo to lose his job, but said he had to be held accountable as a result of his involvement in the sexual harassment scandal of his brother Andrew Cuomo.
The prime-time CNN personality was among a handful of people consulting the disgraced former governor as he tried to save his career in the wake of the attorney general’s explosive report accusing him of sexually harassing 11 women.
There have been numerous calls for CNN to fire young Cuomo in the wake.
“If Mr. Cuomo and the management of CNN don’t think he crossed a serious line, which warrants consequences, I know he crossed a line with me,” Ross said.
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