Two young women who say they were sexually harassed while working for disgraced then-Assemblyman Vito Lopez want Speaker Shelly Silver to pay up for allegedly enabling the pervy politician’s come-ons and other “deplorable” antics.
In two law suits filed yesterday, Victoria Burhans and Chloe Rivera also revealed new details about Lopez’s lechery. Burhans claims that Lopez offered her a tour of the governor’s Executive Mansion in Albany if she stayed overnight with him in “a ‘Lincoln Bedroom’ situation.”
And “Lopez also said to Burhans that he was going to set her up with a senior member of the governor’s administration, and that she should have sex with this man to get Lopez’s housing bill passed,” the suits allege.
Burhans and Rivera allege Lopez couldn’t have repeatedly engaged in such “unwanted physical contact, unwanted sexual advances and incessant comments about their bodies, clothing and appearance” without Silver’s “assistance.”
The suits come in the wake of two official reports that last month blasted Silver (D-Manhattan) for his handling of sex-harassment allegations against Lopez, who resigned rather than face expulsion.
Those reports revealed that Lopez, a former Brooklyn Democratic chairman who is currently running for City Council, pawed at and tried to kiss staffers — and made one feel his cancerous tumors.
The court papers charge that months before Lopez hired Burhans and Rivera last year, Silver “learned that at least two other women on Lopez’s staff had credibly complained that Lopez had sexually harassed them.”
But instead of forwarding the complaints to the Assembly’s ethics committee, Silver allegedly covered them up by orchestrating more than $135,000 in hush-money payments to those victims — with $103,080 coming from taxpayer funds.
“As a result of Silver’s complete failure to meet his obligations as the most senior official in the Assembly, Lopez continued his deplorable conduct and sexually harassed Burhans and Rivera,” court papers say.
The suits target Silver and Lopez in Manhattan federal court, and the state Assembly in Manhattan Supreme Court. Both seek unspecified damages.
One Albany insider said the suits could finally force Silver from the leadership post he’s held since 1994, and many Assembly members are already discussing who will take his place.
“People believe the end is becoming nearer and nearer with every passing allegation,” the source said.
“It is clear Shelly has taken on water and does not have enough buckets to bail himself out.”
Neither Silver nor Lopez responded to requests for comment.