Attorneys for Mayor Eric Adams are in a fierce battle with the woman, who they accuse of sexually abusing them decades ago when they worked together in the New York Police Department.
Adams’ attorneys argued in court documents filed Tuesday that plaintiff Lorna Beach Mathura and her legal team are dragging their feet in responding to requests for evidence in the case.
“Plaintiffs failed to adequately respond to defendants’ discovery requests by the deadline established by the CPLR.” [New York Consolidated Laws, Civil Practice Law and Rules]” Adams’ co-counsel Alex Spiro and the city’s assistant corporation attorney Maxwell Layton said in a filing in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Lawyers said they had agreed to Beech-Matura’s request to set an initial hearing in the case “at a court hearing.” However, he noted that the request does not mean she will be allowed to exceed the deadline for filing her discovery materials.
“Plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary conference does not allow them to override applicable statutes that require a substantive response to properly submitted discovery,” they wrote to Judge Richard Lattin.
“Defendants require Plaintiffs to promptly correct these violations and reserve the right to seek appropriate relief from the courts should Plaintiffs fail to do so.”
The filing says Adams “absolutely” denies the allegations in Beech-Matula’s lawsuit and that his team has asked her attorneys for “documents and other information purported to support plaintiff’s claims.” Are listed.
Instead, Beech-Matura’s attorneys provided “substantive and boilerplate answers to each document request and interrogation,” according to a filing from Adams’ team.
They asked Beech-Matura to “‘supplement’ her response by the court-ordered date for a preliminary conference on the matter.”
The procedural skirmishes in the court filing show that Adams’ defense team is fighting hard to debunk her claims.
In a lawsuit seeking at least $5 million, filed just before the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act, Beach-Matula alleges that Adams sexually assaulted her in 1993.
In this bombshell lawsuit, she alleges that in exchange for helping her career, Adams exposed herself to her and performed oral sex on her when she was a traffic cop and she was a police administrative assistant 30 years ago. He claimed to have asked for.
Mr. Adams was a leader of the New York City Transit Authority Parents Association, which fought for the rights of black employees.
Beech-Matula said she turned to Adams for help in 1993 when she was denied a promotion as a black woman in the NYPD.
Adams denied the allegations and said he didn’t even know Beach-Matula when she filed the lawsuit.
He is up for re-election next year.
The newspaper has contacted Beech-Matura’s lawyer for comment.
