Top NY Senator Jeff Klein Accused Of Forcibly Kissing Ex-Staffer

ALBANY, NY — A former state Senate staffer has accused Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) of forcibly kissing her in 2015, a claim Klein denies. Erica Vladimer was working for the Senate's Independent Democratic Conference — the powerful splinter faction of Democrats that Klein leads — when he "shoved his tongue" down her throat at an Albany bar, she told the Huffington Post in a story published Wednesday.

Vladimer, Klein and other lawmakers and staffers went out in the early morning of April 1, 2015 after passing a state budget in a marathon session, the Huffington Post story says. At one point, the pair stepped outside to smoke a ciagarette and Klein forced himself on Vladimer, she said.

"I pulled away and I said, ‘Senator, absolutely not,'" Vladimer told the Huffington Post. "And he looked at me and said, with this stupid little grin on his face, ‘What? What?’ Like he was being coy, almost trying to flirt and play a game."

Vladimer left her job with the conference a month after the alleged incident, the story says. She never reported it out of shame, but told the Huffington Post she now wants to empower other women to come forward with similar stories.

Klein has been an influential player in Albany since 2011, when he and three other Democrats formed the Independent Democratic Conference, or IDC, to give Republicans control of the Senate. As the leader of the now eight-member conference, he plays a role in budget negotiations and appointments.

Klein held a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon to deny Vladimer's account before the Huffington Post published it. State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island), Klein's longtime girlfriend who was at the bar with him and Vladimer, supported his claim that it never happened.

"To insinuate that it occurred in front of me — those of you who know me know I would not have remained silent," Savino said, according to Politico New York. "There would have been an incident that night had this occurred in full view of myself."

Some Democrats are vying to take Klein's Senate seat in a primary this year in an effort to regain control of the chamber. The Senate has more Democratic lawmakers than Republicans, but the IDC's alliance with Republicans keeps it in the GOP's hands.

In a statement Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for an independent investigation into Vladimer's accusation, calling the ordeal a "deeply disturbing situation."

(Lead image: State Sen. Jeff Klein of the Bronx is pictured in June 2017. Photo by Hans Pennink/Associated Press)