A former colleague of Mayor Eric Adams filed a complaint in state Supreme Court Monday accusing him in graphic detail of “sexual assault, betrayal, and astonishing abuse of power” when he was a New York City police officer, months after she initially filed to meet the Adult Survivor’s Act deadline last November.

The plaintiff, Lorna Beach-Mathura, was a civilian employee in the Transit Bureau of the city’s police department starting in the 1980s when she met Adams, who was pushing for better treatment of Black officers, according to the civil complaint.

In 1993, her complaint alleges, she approached him for help in getting promoted after she was recruited to join the Guardians Association, a fraternal organization of Black officers within the New York City Police Department. 

The Guardians Association was often critical of the NYPD for its treatment of Black officers, and Adams was one of its leaders. Both the NYPD and the Guardians are also named as defendants in the suit. 

According to the complaint, Adams offered to drive Beach-Mathura home to Coney Island after work, picking her up in his police-issued vehicle. But instead of heading south, he drove the opposite direction, parking in a dimly-lit lot near the Hudson River, the complaint alleges.

After asking her a few questions, he then pressed her to perform oral sex in exchange for his help, according to the complaint. She “repeatedly and adamantly refused,” she alleges, but then Adams grabbed her hand and placed it on his erect penis. When she refused, he masturbated in front of her, she alleges. 

Beach-Mathura alleges she was retaliated against after refusing Adams’ demands — saying she was technically “promoted” but transferred to the probation department, where she lost her seniority and didn’t supervise any employees.

She also says in the complaint that, although she told friends of the incident at the time, she did not officially report it out of fear of further retaliation. Nonetheless, “the effects of that sexual assault, betrayal, and astonishing abuse of power, continue to haunt” her to this day, she says in the complaint, which is seeking “compensatory, punitive and exemplary damages.”

Sylvia Hinds-Radix, the Corporation Counsel for the city, said in a statement that “while we review the complaint, the mayor fully denies these outrageous allegations and the events described here; we expect full vindication in court.”

Hinds-Radix added that Adams was “one of the most prominent public opponents of the racism within the NYPD” at the time, making the suit’s allegations of retaliation “ludicrous.”

The complaint was first reported by the Daily News. 

Beach-Mathura, who now lives in Florida, said she learned about the Adult Survivors Act – which created a one-year window for people to file sex assault cases in New York – in 2023. 

In the years since her alleged assault, she watched Adams rise in power from the police department to politics before being elected mayor in November 2021. 

“She became more and more disgusted by the things she learned about him,” her lawyer wrote in the complaint — being “especially appalled” by a story in THE CITY that detailed his role speaking out against a young woman who accused members of the Guardians of cheating on a promotional exam.

Although she feared “slut shaming and accusations of lying” similar to those of this young police officer, she still wanted to come forward, according to the complaint. 

She quotes the mayor in the complaint, noting his stance as a “law and order” leader: “people should be held accountable for the charges they face.”