The water’s getting hotter for Shelly.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is the subject of federal and state complaints filed today by two of the women who say they were sexually harassed by former Assemblyman Vito Lopez.
“Lopez would not have been able to abuse plaintiffs without the assistance of the Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver. Months before Lopez hired plaintiffs, Silver and his senior staff learned that at least two other women on Lopez’s staff had credibly complained that Lopez had sexually harassed them and other employees,” according to the negligence suit filed in the United States District Court Southern District of New York.
The complaint was filed by Victoria Burhans and Chloe Rivera, two former Lopez staffers who complained of his pervy behavior toward female staffers.
After they reported Lopez to Silver, he publicly censured Lopez and stripped him of much of his power last summer.
But Silver had previously paid two female Lopez staffers $103,000 in hush money after they complained of the assemblyman’s sexual harassment.
All four women are featured anonymously in a 70-page, scathing report released last month by the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which detailed Loepz’s lewd advances and Silver’s role in covering it up.
Lopez resigned in disgrace this month.
Silver has apologized for his initial secrecy and said has proposed legislation to stop similar hush-money payments in the future.
A poll yesterday showed 51 percent of New Yorkers want him out of office but Albany insiders expect him to weather the storm.