sexual harassment

A group of New York state lawmakers has joined victims of sexual harassment to demand more hearings on the problem and what the state can do about it.

A former top official at a New York agency fired last year for what authorities called "reprehensible" sexual harassment is still making $136,000 a year while doing no work at another state agency, according to payroll records obtained by The Associated Press.

One woman says a male co-worker at her state job grabbed her head and forced it between his legs. Another woman says the same man exposed his penis to her while she worked in her cubicle. A third says the man pulled her into a small room, unzipped his pants and said, "Why don't we just get this over with?"

One staffer says an assemblyman tried to have her fired after she reported his inappropriate advances. Another says a state senator kissed her after a long day at work. A third recalled a lawmaker who demanded massages, touched her inappropriately and questioned her sexuality when she rebuffed him.

Victims of sexual harassment by state lawmakers are expected to weigh in on what can be done to address the problem at an upcoming legislative hearing.

A federal judge in Manhattan has dismissed a civil lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed a former appointee of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed her after getting her a state job.

The prosecutor appointed to investigate allegations that former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman physically abused women says she has closed the case without bringing criminal charges.

The owner of an upstate New York restaurant who sexually harassed employees has been sentenced to six months in jail.

A former New York University graduate student has sued a prominent professor, alleging she turned his dream of working with a world-class scholar "into more than three years of continuous and unabated sexual harassment, sexual assault and stalking."

A former New York state lawmaker has pleaded guilty in federal court to trying to cover up making unwanted sexual advances to a female staffer.