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More details emerge on Hoyt allegations

Prior to filing a sexual harassment lawsuit against a former official in the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Lisa Cater provided 2 On Your Side with an envelope stuffed with documents, including legal and medical papers, along with copies of e-mails and text messages which she claimed were sent between she and Sam Hoyt.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Prior to filing a sexual harassment lawsuit against a former official in the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Lisa Cater provided 2 On Your Side with an envelope stuffed with documents, including legal and medical papers, along with copies of e-mails and text messages which she claimed were sent between she and Sam Hoyt.

The authenticity of those messages may become an important part of the case, if it proceeds to trial.

Hoyt, whom Cuomo appointed as the regional President of Empire State Development, abruptly resigned from his post on October 30.

Initially, Empire State Development President and CEO Howard Zemsky issued a laudatory statement about Hoyt and his exemplary service. However, after Cater began contacting reporters to bring her allegations and those reporters subsequently started asking state officials for comment, the Cuomo administration acknowledged that at the time of his resignation, Hoyt was under investigation regarding the woman’s claims.

While it is clear that the documents provided by Cater do not comprise all of the exchanges she may have had with Hoyt, and while the authenticity of some of them have been contested by Hoyt’s attorney, they offer insight into the timeline of contact between the two, which began two years before Hoyt left his post.

“It has been very difficult to come forward with this," Cater told reporters on Sunday, while flanked by her attorney Paul Liggieri near the U.S. District Courthouse in Manhattan where her lawsuit was filed.

Reaching Out For Help

Cater told 2 On Your Side that as a result of a domestic violence incident in 2011, she was hospitalized for injuries to both her body and psyche.

Four years later, with still lingering physical and psychological issues, Cater said it had become hard for her to keep a job, and therefore a decent place to live.

Desperate, she says she reached out to Hoyt whom she’d once met during a political fundraiser perhaps a decade before, recalling that he struck her as a “nice guy dedicated to helping people.”

In an email dated November 7, 2015, she contacted Hoyt at Empire State Development to explain her dire straits.

Hoyt responded in short order on his state e-mail account, pledging that he and his assistant Lynn Marinelli would reach out to friends who owned apartments. In a subsequent e-mail, Hoyt even offered to arrange to have her driven around to look at them.

Within days, Hoyt and Marinelli had secured an apartment for Cater, and Hoyt then promised to help her find a job.

According to Cater, Hoyt told her that as the Governor's point man in Western New York, he was in charge of getting “patronage” jobs for friends, and promised to use his network of contacts in both the public and private sector to get her one.

Grateful, she refers to him in another e-mail as a "genie," to which he replies that if getting a job was her second wish, "I'm curious to what your third will be" while noting he had "scoped her out on Facebook" and complimenting her on her appearance.

In the ensuing weeks, according to emails provided by Cater, Hoyt provides her with a steady list of state job openings, promising her he "will keep looking" and that "I will try to help."

By the end of December, Hoyt advises that he'd been tipped to a resignation at the DMV, even copying her in on an e-mail from another state office, which discloses the salary of the person who left the post and telling her to "expect a call."

Meantime, despite knowing her for only a couple months, Hoyt is leaning on a staffer at the Governor's office of Appointments, telling her "the one candidate we sent is extremely well qualified and should be hired," advising to "put on your angry voice and tell them we will fill this position not the holdovers who run the place"

In an alleged text message to the complainant, Hoyts says "The DMV job is real...you're the only candidate."

In February, Cater a got congratulatory letter welcoming her to her new position at the DMV.

More Than Business

By this time, text messages alleged to have been sent between the two and shared by Cater, are demonstrative that the relationship between she and Hoyt had moved well beyond being strictly professional.

Though none of them –at least those she shared with us-- are salacious, they are flirtatious, many exchanges late at night, filled with innuendo.

In her lawsuit, however, Cater alleges that Hoyt was sexting her, even sending her a picture of himself nude while vacationing with his wife in Florida, and asking, “Do I look tan?”

She insists in court papers that Hoyt sought more than a “thank you” for his help, and began stalking and pestering her for sex – something Hoyt’s attorney Terry Connors has strongly denied.

“Mr. Hoyt, the sexual harasser, constantly held that job over her head,” said Liggieri.

Five months into her job at the DMV, in July 2016, Cater filed a disability claim related to a wrist injury and lingering post-traumatic stress disorder from the domestic violence incident in 2011.

With her facing a loss of income and possibly her apartment, Hoyt appears through e-mails she provided, to be getting back to work, hitting up contacts to find her another job.

He e-mails then Erie County Clerk Chris Jacobs, saying “he has a friend who is unhappy at DMV and would prefer to work for the county and if there were any openings.” While also reaching out to other state agencies to inquire about openings.

Meantime, Hoyt, who she says had by that time cosigned a loan for her to further help her financially, also proposes to set up a go fund me page on her behalf.

What Was Their Relationship?

In all of our conversations with her, Cater insisted she never had a physical relationship with Sam Hoyt.

Although in a statement, Hoyt called it “short term, consensual and inappropriate.”

Whatever it was it, it came to a head on August 26, 2016 in LaSalle Park, where Cater claims that Hoyt suggested to discuss matters.

It was here that she claims, he forcibly grabbed her private area.

Dueling E-mails.

In an an alleged email exchange after that date (copies of which were provided by Cater) she wrote: “I have paid a price for everything you did for me…I played along in the beginning because I was nervous…then to force yourself on me, that was the last straw.”

She provided another in which Hoyt allegedly writes, “I’m a flawed man who couldn't’t control his emotions when it came to you. I wanted you, and tried anything to have you without realizing the repercussions of what could happen.”

Amid her threats to tell his wife and his boss the Governor, Hoyt proposed that he compensate her financially not to do that.

This seemed to incense her.

“You’re a narcissist and you control. When you can’t control you offer me 50k to go away…people will know what you did.”

Hoyt allegedly replied: “I offered the money so yes, you don’t say what I’ve done and also not to humiliate my boys or myself from the public judgment…..If you care and respect the GOOD thing I’ve done, take the money and start a new life.”

However, Hoyt’s Attorney says he has reason to believe that Cater tampered with the e-mails she provided 2 On Your Side, showing us another which is from the same address, and sent at the same date and time as the one Cater shared.

Though the subject matter and the first paragraph of the two e-mails appear identical, in this one, far from chastising Hoyt for his behavior, Cater is alleged to profess her undying love for him, calling him special, thanking him profusely for his efforts to help her, and stating that any harm that has come to her is by her own doing.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Connors wrote: “Sam has previously acknowledged and expressed regret for a short term, consensual relationship with Ms. Cater. These new allegations are totally inconsistent with her original story and contradicted by her own email and text message correspondence. If she persists with this lawsuit, we will seek dismissal at the earliest stage.’

These two particular emails, and their authenticity, may become a crux of the case as it moves forward.

Settlements

The emails Cater provided indicate that within weeks after the meeting at LaSalle Park, she hired a lawyer, who proposed a settlement wherein Hoyt would pay her $350,000, apologize to her, and pay for a year worth of psychological counseling for her.

She would make no claim against Hoyt, who the proposed original settlement described as having used his position to “manipulate a vulnerable domestic victim and coerce her into having a sexual relationship.”

For reasons still unclear, within a week, Cater broke ties with her original attorney and shortly thereafter, Connors offered another deal.

Though the proposed settlement begins with an admonishment (in bold face type and capital letters) in which Connors strongly encouraged her to have a lawyer review it, she says she did not.

She signed the settlement, for which, she would receive $50,000 and Hoyt would admit no wrong doing. In addition, she would release him from all future legal claims, and keep all matters regarding Hoyt and the settlement confidential.

Which she also did not, because e-mails provided by Cater indicate that by that time, she had already contacted the governor’s office with a complaint against Hoyt.

“In response, she either received nothing or she received a generic e-mail," Liggieri said.

That is something the state has strongly denied, saying it opened three investigations into the matter, while describing Cater as an uncooperative witness in their probe.

Complaint Filed Against Sam Hoyt, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, NYS, & Empire State Development by WGRZ-TV on Scribd

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