A second woman has come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Scott Stringer. The woman, Teresa Logan, worked for Stringer at a restaurant on the Upper West Side in the early 1990s. In an interview with the New York Times, she accused Stringer of groping her while carrying trays, groping and kissing her without her consent outside the workplace, and generally behaving in a manner that made her uncomfortable.
The allegations come five weeks after another woman, Jean Kim, accused Stringer of making unwanted advances toward her when she volunteered on his 2001 campaign for public advocate. That news upended Stringer’s campaign for mayor, but he refused to end it.
The Times found no witnesses to the incidents Logan described at Uptown Local, a bar and restaurant Stringer co-founded and ran, but Logan’s sister and a friend recounted hearing from her about Stringer’s alleged behavior at the time.
In a statement to the Times, Stringer said he had “no memory” of Logan. “If, in fact, I met Ms. Logan, and ever did anything to make her uncomfortable, I am sorry,” he said. “Uptown Local was a long-ago chapter in my life from the early 1990s, and it was all a bit of a mess.”
Stringer has denied Kim’s allegations, which included the claim that Stringer had groped her repeatedly. The Times notes that Kim’s lawyer, Patricia Pastor, set up the initial interview between Logan and the paper. Logan, a registered Democrat, told the Times that she had considered coming forward for more than a year but only decided to do so after learning of Kim’s claims. “It was like this trigger,” Logan said. “There’s like a visceral feeling hearing her on the news, and him, and hearing her and knowing she was right. I was like, I know I have to do this.”
Stringer and his campaign suggested that Logan’s allegations were politically motivated, pointing to Pastor’s involvement:
In a statement, Mr. Stringer and his team cited inaccuracies in Ms. Pastor’s past remarks concerning Ms. Kim’s allegations. “With one week to go before voting starts, Ms. Pastor is back with more allegations, this time from 30 years ago,” he said. The mayoral primary is on June 22 and early voting begins June 12. Rebecca Katz, a spokeswoman for the campaign, added that the allegations “predated decades of service and management by Scott Stringer in the public eye and should be considered in that context.”
“I don’t have a lawyer, I don’t need the lawyer, I don’t want to press charges,” Logan said. “I just wanted to really just tell my story.”
Kim’s allegations against Stringer prompted numerous politicians and other allies to retract their endorsements of him. Until Friday, no other women had come forward with similar allegations.
