A Democrat running for Westchester County district attorney was accused of sexually harassing a female subordinate in the prosecutor’s office and questioning her race — allegedly telling her “I know you’re not white.”
The allegations against Adeel Mirza, who has worked in the DA office as a prosecutor and recently announced a run for the top job, were part of a lawsuit filed by a former coworker alleging a hostile work environment.
After the alleged victim was hired by the District Attorney’s Office in 2019, Mirza repeatedly invited her out for drinks and told her the only way for her to succeed was to “become close to people like” him, the lawsuit claims.
While out at drinks Mirza allegedly bombarded her with questions like “What is your race?” and “Are you Hispanic?”
He then prodded her about her race, allegedly saying “I know you’re not white,” and “Come on, we can all tell, for obvious reasons, that you aren’t white,” according to the lawsuit.
When the former prosecutor, who identifies as African American in the suit, told Mirza she is leaving, he “forced his arm around [her] waist and aggressively shoved his hand down the back of her pants,” the lawsuit claims.
“With his hand placed on [her] buttocks, Mirza then leaned in and demanded to know “Why are you so afraid of me?” the woman alleged.
After reporting the incident the woman claims she faced retaliation from her supervisor, Shameika Mathurin, who is a close friend of Mirza, including fabricated reasons to give her negative performance reviews and “four times as much work” as her white male coworkers.
Following her report, the woman was then allegedly demoted to a role where her new boss — another friend of Mirza — asked her to investigate an incident where a man was charged with menacing and harassing his neighbor, the lawsuit said.
While looking into the case, the woman discovered evidence suggesting that the neighbor was the initial aggressor — which she relayed to Adimari, who then “coached the arresting officer into giving a different version of the facts in an attempt to cover the exculpatory evidence,” the lawsuit alleges.
In a disclosure letter, the woman noted the two different versions of events — which she alleged Adimari edited in a way that “did not accurately portray the arresting officer’s statements,” according to the suit.
When she refused to sign Adimari’s edited version, which she felt was “deliberately inaccurate,” Adimari allegedly began “violently slamming doors and aggressively screaming statements intended to publicly impugn [her] character,” according to the suit.
Eighteen days after reporting Adimari’s allegedly inaccurate disclosure letter, the woman was allegedly fired.
In the lawsuit, the woman claims her supervisors at the District Attorney’s Office “fabricated a story about [her] dishonesty in order to create a pretextual reason for terminating [her].”
The woman is seeking a declaratory judgment that states the county, District Attorney’s Office and her former bosses violated the law, and damages to be determined at a trial, including punitive damages and attorneys fees and whatever the court deems “just and proper.”
Mirza, who has worked for the District Attorney’s Office for almost two decades, declared his candidacy for the role last week, looking to succeed his boss Mimi Rocah, a former MSNBC contributor who is not seeking a second term.
He is one of three Democrats running to fill the role in deeply blue Westchester, according to News 12. No Republicans have entered the race.
Mirza through a DA office spokesperson declined comment, saying the office didn’t discuss ongoing litigation.