Metro

Publishing titan accused of sexual assault in ex-girlfriend’s lawsuit

A publishing titan allegedly sexually assaulted his former girlfriend and coworker when she came to him for a new job, according to a graphic new lawsuit.

Laurence J. Kirshbaum, 69, the former head of Time Warner Book Group and current chief of Amazon.com’s news publishing division, twice thrust himself on editor Teresa Ellen McCoy, 55, in 2010, the Manhattan civil suit alleges.

Kirshbaum had actually signed an agreement in 2005 promising only to have professional contact with McCoy in the future, according to the suit.

Kirshbaum’s attorney, Catherine Redlich, admitted that her client had a consensual relationship with McCoy ten years ago, but called the assault allegations baseless.

McCoy claims the married Kirshbaum began flirting with her again in 2010 when he contacted her with a job offer. They met at a midtown deli where he allegedly forced his tongue down her throat and declared that “She would always be the love of his life, he wanted to leave his wife,” the court papers say.

McCoy said the August 2010 incident confused her, but she agreed to see Kirshbaum a few months later after he promised to fund her documentary.

They met at deserted espresso bar on E. 44th Street in October 2010, and he allegedly cornered her in a booth, and shoved his fingers and then his face under the horrified woman’s skirt.

“So that she would keep quiet about what he had done, Kirshbaum reminded [McCoy] of a close family relation, who he had told her was a federal prosecutor in a threatening email years earlier,” the legal papers state, adding that “the threat was a factor in intimidating plaintiff from reporting Kirshbaum’s conduct.”

McCoy says she suffers from Rape Trauma Syndrome. She is speaking unspecified monetary damages.

Kirshbaum’s attorney, Catherine Redlich, said the relationship soured “when McCoy began threatening Mr. Kirshbaum and his family with public embarrassment and demanding money on pain of public disclosure.”

She added, “We believe the evidence will establish clearly that McCoy’s allegations of employment discrimination and assault are baseless and we have complete confidence that the falsity of her allegations will be proved at trial.”