Mayor Eric Adams’ high-profile lawyer vowed on Friday not to settle the bombshell sexual assault case against Hizzoner, calling it “fictitious” — and setting off the accuser’s attorney during a combative court hearing.
“I don’t settle cases that are fictitious, your honor,” huffed Adams’ lawyer Alex Spiro at a Manhattan Supreme Court hearing in the case filed by Lorna Beach-Mathura, who has accused the mayor of assaulting her more than three decades ago when the pair worked together in the NYPD’s Transit Bureau.
Spiro had said the mayor wanted to get the case to a “dismissal or trial” as soon as possible — prompting Judge Richard Latin to remind him that both sides could settle as well, Courthouse News reported.
His subsequent comment set off Beach-Matura’s lawyer Megan Goodard — who accused Spiro of “gaslighting” the court by allegedly falsely suggesting that she has failed to provide evidence corroborating her client’s claims.
“This whole thing is the craziest gaslighting I have ever seen,” Goddard told the judge during the virtual hearing.
Beach-Matura’s suit — which calls the mayor a “predator” — claims that Adams exposed himself to her in a “vacant lot” in 1993 and demanded oral sex in exchange for his help advancing her career.
She told nine people about the alleged assault, including seven people she allegedly spoke to before the 2022 passing of the Adult Survivors Act, a law that gave New Yorkers one year to file sex assault claims that would otherwise fall outside the statute of limitations, court papers claim.
But Spiro, who has represented celebrities like Jay-Z and Elon Musk, argued Friday that Goddard has provided the court with “no information” to back up the claims, including the date of the alleged assault.
Goddard responded that, “We’re not trying to hide anything,” ABC7 reported.
“My client does not know the exact date. I’m not going to pretend that she does,” the attorney added on the video stream.
Goddard also argued that purported emails that Beach-Matura sent accusing the mayor of sexual assault during his 2021 campaign, before the Adult Survivors Act was passed, show that she’s not motivated by money, as Adams’ allies have suggested.
“They did this whole campaign about how she’s just after money,” Goddard said at the hearing, Courthouse News reported.
“There was no money to be had.”
An exasperated Goddard threatened to sue Spiro for “defamation” over his “fictitious” remark, but the judge warned her that she would have no legal grounds to do so, because the comments were made in open court.
Adams denies the sex assault allegations.
Court records show that Beach-Matura, who lives in Florida, has filed several other lawsuits in the past, including a case against the School Board of Miami which was dismissed in 2010.
She also tried to sue American Airlines the same year, but lost the case, and sued a Florida casino in 2022 in another case that a judge dismissed, court records show.
