An attorney for the ex-city employee accusing Mayor Adams of sexual assault threatened to sue the mayor’s lawyer for defamation during a contentious court hearing on Friday, where the two sides traded barbs and accused each other of withholding information.
Megan Goddard, the attorney for Lorna Beach-Mathura, lobbed the threat after Adams’ lawyer, Alex Spiro, made a remark saying the mayor wouldn’t consider settling the civil lawsuit because her claim that he sexually assaulted her in 1993 is “fictitious.”
“I don’t think him calling it ‘fictitious’ today, in this phone call, in this Zoom call with the court, is protected from a defamation claim, and I will bring one against him for saying that,” Goddard said at the virtual hearing.
In response, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Latin, who presides over the case, noted, “these are court proceedings,” during which lawyers are typically immune from defamation charges.
Beach-Mathura, a former Transit Police employee who worked at the agency at the same time as Adams, hasn’t specified the month of the alleged assault in 1993, which Adams vehemently denies ever happening. She will answer Spior’s questions in a closed-door deposition at his office on Sept. 6, Latin said at the conclusion of Friday’s hearing.
Earlier in the proceeding, Spiro contended it “violates due process” for Beach-Mathura not to provide a tighter timeframe for the claim and requested Latin order her to give one.
Spiro, a high-profile celebrity lawyer retained by Adams’ administration earlier this year to represent the mayor in the case alongside the city Law Department, also said there’s “zero corroboration” for Beach-Mathura’s allegations.
Goddard dismissed Spiro’s comment about corroboration, noting her client has provided a list of individuals she says she contemporaneously told about the alleged assault as well as emails she wrote about her accusations during the 2021 mayoral race.
She also noted it’s common for sexual abuse victims to struggle to remember dates and times and accused Adams’ legal team of withholding employment records in hopes Beach-Mathura would guess the wrong timeframe for the alleged assault “so they can call her a liar again.”
Spiro countered that Adams’ accuser shouldn’t be able to cast a wide net in her information requests.
“Ms. Beach Mathura does not know the date that she was sexually assaulted by now Mayor Adams. Mr. Spiro is an extremely seasoned litigator and he knows that people don’t remember exact dates,” Goddard said, prompting Latin to chime in: “Especially from 30 years ago.”
“Exactly, your honor,” Goddard replied, “and so I’m not going to be tricked into or backed into pretending that we know the date.”
Also at the hearing, Goddard revealed Adams’ legal team this week served a subpoena for testimony from an individual Beach-Mathura has said she confided in about the alleged assault in 1993. The unnamed individual is among seven people Beach-Mathura contemporaneously told about the alleged assault, according to a letter Goddard filed in court earlier this week.
Beyond denying Beach-Mathura’s claims, Adams says he doesn’t recall meeting her.
Beach-Mathura filed her suit against Adams in March under the Adult Survivors Act, which opened a one-year window for sexual misconduct victims to sue their alleged assailants if the statute of limitations has expired.
The suit, which seeks at least $5 million in damages, alleges Adams tried to get her to perform oral sex on him in his car after they met to discuss a workplace issue while employed at the since-defunct city Transit Police Department. According to the suit, Adams ejaculated on her leg after she refused his proposition. He then dropped her off at a subway station, the suit claims.
