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In reply to the discussion: Why are Cuomo's accusers all piling on just now? They've [View all]no_hypocrisy
(46,104 posts)It seems to make the situation somewhat "off".
I had a client accused of 16 different abuses (emotional, psychological, physical, mental) within a period of less than four hours the same day. It didn't look good at all. The harshest accusation was my client, the "victim's" nurse, "crushed" the foot of the victim with a Hoyer Lift and left her on her bed with sheets soaked in urine. The only witnesses were the victim's son and a roommate who only heard sporadic conversation and noises.
No, it didn't look good at all. But I suspected something was up because of 16 abuses in such a short period of time after no complaints seemed suspicious to me.
I started representation with my belief that my client could be liable either fully or partially. There were too many accusations to say with a straight face that it was all fabricated. And even if I did say that, how could I explain an old woman in a wheelchair made it all up?
I worked by myself (for free) for nearly two years. I sat at the hearings, listening to the victim, to the witnesses, to the staff. I objected where necessary. I cross-examined with scrutiny. I poured over the transcripts and the evidence at the end.
I turned in a 24-page closing argument. In that document, I listed 14 different gross inconsistencies that countered the accusations. Stuff like the victim named on a photo the wrong place on the wrong leg where the alleged injury was. Her son admitted that nothing happened. Photos showing that the injury was impossible due to the location on medical reports. (Her leg would have pushed against a mattress.) Finally, I connected the dots: the victim had a certain rage that appeared when she missed her doctors' appointments and/or medical testing. I demonstrated that the victim was blamed my client for not preparing her sufficiently, to allow her to go to her DEXA scan appointment the first time; she had to miss two appointments and had to go to a third one. And the victim was vindictive. She thought she would just get my client fired or re-assigned, not having her license revoked.
So I ask for those of you ready to hire a limo to have Andrew Cuomo driven away from the Governor's Mansion, hold off until more information is available. You just don't know what you don't know.