BLACK ‘ERIN BROCKOVICH’ ACCUSES NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
FORMER BROOKLYNITE DISBELIEVED BY JURY IN 2009 MIAMI TRIAL.
Mayor Eric Adams at City Hall, Wednesday, November 8, 2023. Photo Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
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The woman accusing New York City Mayor Eric Adams of sexually assaulting her in 1993 was born in the Caribbean, moved to Brooklyn after graduating high school, earned a paralegal degree from Long Island University, earned a broadcast journalism degree from Brooklyn College, worked for the Transit Police as an administrative assistant, hosted a talk show on Channel 11 and worked for NBC at Rockefeller Plaza before departing for Florida where she went back to college, earned a master's degree in public administration and became a teacher.
That’s what Lorna Beach-Mathura told a federal jury in Florida when she testified under oath in support of her federal lawsuit against American Airlines in 2009. By that time she'd filed at least six lawsuits against various defendants for various claims ranging from negligence to employment discrimination.
Her claim against American Airlines' was that one of its employees failed to secure a wheelchair she invited Beach-Mathura to sit in. It allegedly happened at Narita Airport in Japan in 2006. The then-50 year-old testified she made what she called a “pilgrimage” to Japan to visit the "chief priest of my Temple."
While waiting in line at the airport for her flight home, she allegedly experienced pain from a previous injury—an injury resulting from a felony assault by a student while working as an elementary school teacher. A wheelchair was summoned to ease her discomfort.
When Beach-Mathura sat down, she testified at the 2009 trial, the wheelchair rolled back and she landed on the floor, "directly on my bottom."
"I sat. But the chair wasn't there because it rolled backwards," she testified.
During cross-examination, Beach-Mathura was asked by a lawyer for American Airlines to explain her apparent refusal to hand over medical and legal records in her possession the corporation had a right to review for its defense under Federal court rules. Her answer recalled Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.
During Hurricane Wilma's 'reign of terror,' the plaintiff and her minor children watched helplessly while their garden storage shed was torn apart and then transported by strong winds out of their backyard and across the street to areas unknown.
Following the airborne pieces of the shed, boxes of files, folders, reports, and medical and financial records including old tax returns, canceled checks, paystubs, made a hasty departure into areas unknown.
After the jury was given the case to decide, it sent out a note to the judge presiding over it asking for a list of the lawsuits Beach-Mathura filed.
"Please provide timeline of lawsuits," the jury's note read.
Jury Note #1 in Beach-Mathura v. American Airlines.
Hours later, the jury sent out another note. This one said it reached a verdict—for American Airlines. The jury didn't believe Beach-Mathura.
She also sued the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Board in 2009. Again, she lost. She appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, lost again, and appealed the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court did not review it.
Beach-Mathura wrote a self-published book about her courtroom odyssey called "A Layman's Petition For A Writ of Certiorari In The Supreme Court Of The United States: Booklet Format Filed October, 28, 2013." It's available on Amazon for $21.95 plus shipping.
The "Layman's Petition" author's blurb makes her sound like a Black Erin Brockovich. In it, she claims to have spent "many years spent fighting for myself and others in various courts in the United States."
"Never give up. You just may win," is some of her legal advice.
The woman accusing Mayor Eric Adams of sexual assault. Photo Credit: Indiegogo.
Her testimony in her lawsuit against American Airlines is public record. (embedded PDFs below.)
Given under oath before a federal judge in a federal courtroom in Miami it provides a detailed account of Beach-Mathura's life. Her mother, she said, brought her to Brooklyn after she graduated high school when she was "18 or 19" and found work for her in a "factory." After that, she worked for "a corporation" in "Manhattan, New York, on Park Avenue."
She decided to return to school, working at a doctor’s office during the day, attending school in the evening. She graduated with a paralegal degree in 1980. That's when, she testified, she took "a civil service exam for the police department in New York City." She kept her day-time job in the doctor’s office, and worked the graveyard shift for the "Transit Police Department" as an "administrative aide.”
She worked in "the central record section. I would work
from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. in the morning, and at 9:00 a.m. I would go to the doctor's office and work until 5:00 p.m. I did that for more than a year. And then I decided to go to college.
Eight years later, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism. She went to work, she testified at the 2009 trial, for "Channel 11, and I did a talk show there; and also by NBC at Rockefeller Plaza. I worked in the newsroom." In 1993, Beach-Mathura relocated to Miami after being denied a full-time job in broadcast journalism.
“And when it was time to get a full-time position, I was denied, so I decided it was time to leave town," she testified. "I was advised to try to start my news career in a smaller market, so I came down to Miami."
1993 was also the year she was allegedly sexually assaulted by Transit police officer Eric Adams, according to her latest lawsuit, filed against him in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Wednesday. (Transit police were a separate city agency from the NYPD until it was folded into the NYPD in 1995.)
“It absolutely did not happen,” Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday when confronted with the allegations. “I don’t recall ever meeting this person.”
“I would never hurt anyone in that magnitude,” Adams stressed. “It never happened.”
Beach-Mathura did not respond to an email seeking comment. Telephone numbers listed for her in public records were no longer active. Her lawyer in her lawsuit against Mayor Adams did not respond to requests for comment.
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