Chris Cuomo, brother of disgraced New York governor, accused of sexual assault

Television presenter Chris Cuomo, whose brother Andrew resigned as New York governor following a series of harassment allegations, has been accused of sexually assaulting his former boss in a bar.

Shelley Ross, a former executive producer at CNN and ABC, said the incident took place at a party she was attending with her husband in 2005.

“When Mr Cuomo entered the Upper West Side bar, he walked toward me and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock,” she wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times published on Friday.

She said Mr Cuomo told her he could do this now Ms Ross was no longer his boss. Accusing Mr Cuomo of displaying “cocky arrogance”, Ms Ross pushed him away.

The episode was witnessed by Ms Ross’s husband and the couple swiftly left the party. An hour later, Mr Cuomo expressed his regret in an email, admitting he was ashamed of his conduct.

“So pass along my apology to your very good and noble husband... and I apologise to you as well, for even putting you in such a position,” he wrote.

Ms Ross questioned whether Mr Cuomo was ashamed of what he did or just embarrassed that the incident was seen by her husband.

“Mr Cuomo may say this is a sincere apology. I’ve always seen it as an attempt to provide himself with legal and moral coverage to evade accountability,” she said.

“I never thought that Mr Cuomo’s behaviour was sexual in nature,” she added.

“Whether he understood it at the time or not, his form of sexual harassment was a hostile act meant to diminish and belittle his female former boss in front of the staff.”

The episode will cause further embarrassment for Mr Cuomo, one of CNN’s leading presenters, who has been criticised for advising his brother when he was engulfed by harassment allegations made by several women.

Mr Cuomo said he had abided by CNN’s rules in not covering the story, because of a potential conflict of interest.

Responding to Ms Ross’s allegations, Mr Cuomo said in a statement: “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature.

“It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologised to her then, and I meant it.”