Did He Grab Her?

Is Assemblyman Greg Ball facing sexual harassment allegations or is this just another case of dirty politics in the race for New York Senate? The senate candidate for New York’s 40th district was accused of groping a waitress at the Assembly Restaurant and Lounge in Albany on June 21. Accounts from various people at the bar that night widely differ--including a debate on whether glasses were thrown or one pint glass was simply dropped. Even the waitress involved has modified her account from what she originally said occurred.

Ball is said to have grabbed the waitress in a ‘sexual manner’ although those who were with him said they saw no such occurrence.

“This gentleman proceeded to put his hands on me in a sexual manner,” according to an internal incident report filed with the restaurant by the waitress, as reported by NY Daily News. “He grabbed my pants, my shirt, the towel hanging from my waist, and my back.” However, no official police report was filed.

Ball told the Courier that he is thinking about holding a press conference and would consider taking a lie detector test. “This person [the waitress] was used by some other entity to tarnish my name,” he said. “When you take on extremely powerful people in Albany, they will resist to the extreme…to stop you in your infancy.” Some New York politicians have referred to this tactic as “crib death.”

Ball said, “There is a bounty on my head as soon as I took office in Albany and there will be for as long as I continue to do my job … Only Albany could manufacture garbage like this and feed it to a reporter, and the public, as fact.”

Steve Moutopoulos, a partner with the restaurant, said he was aware of the alleged incident: “I talked to the waitress the following day and she said it was no big deal. She walked away from the party she had been serving and asked that a different waitress take care of the table.”

Moutopoulos said the waitress “didn’t know if it was on purpose or not when she was talking. He just reached out and she felt uncomfortable about it not knowing if it was intentional or unintentional.”

Yono Purnomo, owner of Yono’s restaurant—located next to the hotel that Ball stays at—was seated at an outside table with Ball that evening. He said they had been seated for about 25 minutes and that he wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around them. “A glass was thrown nearby and a man asked ‘who threw this?’ but I have no idea where it came from,” Yono said. “I didn’t see anything at all.” When asked about whether or not he witnessed anything regarding actions between Ball and the waitress, he said, “There was nothing odd going on, to my recollection.”

Also seated close to Ball’s table was Assemblyman Bob Barra, who represents District 14. Barra said that Ball had offered him a drink, which he declined. “I saw him go to put it down on the side of his chair and he dropped it. I said, ‘if I had known you were going to drop that drink, I’d have just taken it’ and we laughed about it,” Barra said. “I saw no issues go down with the waitress.”

Adding further confusion to what actually happened with the glass was Ball’s statement that a glass was knocked over and broke when someone bumped into the table.

Joe Tacopina, Ball’s new attorney, threatened legal action, asserting that “political skullduggery or bad information” sparked the rumors about the alleged incident.

“Rather than talk about a property tax cap or reforming Albany my opponents are resorting to the politics of personal destruction,” Ball said in a statement. “The first time I heard of this was on the legislative floor, voting against the budget mess, when a Daily News reporter, who admittedly was fed this unsubstantiated slander by a political operative, excitedly flashed me this allegation.”

“Accusations like this cannot be taken lightly, so I have hired an attorney to identify the source of this garbage, bring forth a suit of slander, and allow me to remain focused on my campaign to cap property taxes, reign in spending and reform Albany. Hopefully the people will see through this 9th inning assault,” Ball continued.

Meanwhile, Jim Coleman, campaign manager for Ball, contacted the Courier Friday evening and blasted State Senator Vincent Leibell and other Albany politicians for concocting the fabricated story, “People don’t like Greg because he stands up for what’s right. When a leader stands up for the people instead of kowtowing to the powerful elite, this is what happens. This is a desperate attempt to destroy Greg’s character and a drive-by to get the focus off the real issues—balancing New York’s budget and cutting out wasteful spending in Albany.”

Coleman alleged that Senator Leibell was “trying to get the heat off him as a result of the FBI investigation. We’re not only blaming Leibell but the host of powerful elites in Albany. They want a man elected who will take orders from Albany leaders. Assemblyman Greg Ball will take orders from the people when he wins the primary in September and the general election in November.”

Ball is facing a primary against Somers Supervisor Mary Beth Murphy in September. Should he be victorious, he will square off against Democrat Mike Kaplowitz in November.

“Obviously I’m only going off what the newspapers reported but if it did occur, frankly, it’s disgusting,” Kaplowitz said. “As a father of two daughters it’s disturbing and disappointing. If true, this [Ball] is being antisocial, inappropriate, antiwomen, and if he did do this he should resign.

Murphy said that if true, she would consider the actions “outrageous; Albany and the people in it need to be more focused on the issues,” she said.

The Assembly Restaurant and Lounge could not be reached for comment and no one from the restaurant staff would confirm or deny whether or not the establishment has security cameras, which might show exactly what happened.

Coleman attacked Leibell, calling him a “dog which has been hit by a train. He’s ready to bite anybody. The senator believes that Assemblyman Ball tipped off the FBI. The FBI has been watching him for many years. Senator Leibell is not the only official in the state being investigated like this. He’s fighting back and is wrongly putting the heat on Greg by hiring someone to destroy Assemblyman Ball’s character.”

Leibell called Coleman’s accusations “ludicrous. I won’t even comment on this rubbish.”