Prominent New York State Senator Accused Of Forcibly Kissing Staffer
Switching Sides: Democrats thought they had control of New York?s state Senate after winning a majority of seats. Jeffrey Klein and Simcha Felder had other thoughts in mind. Image by courtesy of jeffrey klein
By Josh Nathan-Kazis January 11, 2018
New York state senator Jeffrey Klein was accused by a former Senate staffer of forcibly kissing her in 2015, the Huffington Post reported Wednesday.
Klein, who leads the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference, represents the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale in the Senate. Klein denied the allegations.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, among others, has called for an investigation, according to the Huffington Post.
The former staffer, Erica Vladimer, told the Huffington Post that Klein had kissed her outside of a bar where they were gathering with other senators and staffers.
“All of a sudden there was a hand on the back of my head and he shoved his tongue down my throat,” Vladimer told the site. “In my head it lasted forever, I don’t think it lasted even three seconds.”
As the head of the IDC, Klein is a kingmaker in Albany. A pending deal with the mainstream Democrats could soon make him one of the two co-leaders of the State Senate.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
