Rep. Joseph Morelle, a Rochester Democrat who spent years climbing the ranks of the New York State Assembly, has acknowledged in a sworn affidavit that he was wrong to publicly dismiss a sexual assault accusation made by a young staffer against one of the chamber's most powerful aides, a man who later pleaded guilty to a sex crime involving a different victim.
The affidavit, filed in a civil negligence lawsuit brought by former Assembly staffer Elizabeth Crothers, forces Morelle to reckon with his own words from 2001, when he told a reporter he "absolutely don't believe a word of it" after Crothers accused Michael Boxley of rape. Boxley served as legal counsel and top aide to then-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
The case is headed to trial on Aug. 24. And the sworn statements now surfacing, from Morelle, from former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, and from another Boxley victim who has gone public for the first time, paint a damning picture of how Albany's Democratic establishment rallied around a politically connected man and left the women who accused him to fend for themselves.
In his affidavit, obtained by the New York Post, Morelle described how Boxley allegedly denied Crothers' accusation during a conversation in 2001. Morelle then repeated that denial to the press.
"Shortly after speaking with Boxley, a reporter for a local news outlet approached me and asked me my thoughts were regarding the rape allegations made by Ms. Crothers against Mr. Boxley. I responded that 'I absolutely don't believe a word of it.'"
That was Morelle's own account of what happened, offered under oath more than two decades later. He admitted he did not know Crothers at the time and does not believe he had ever met or spoken with her. He took Boxley's word, and broadcast it.
Morelle went on to say that he apologized publicly to Crothers in 2018, calling his original statement "insensitive and made without full knowledge of the facts." He also acknowledged that it was "intended to be supportive of Michael Boxley."
That admission sits at the center of Crothers' lawsuit. A sitting congressman, who served as Democratic Assembly majority leader under both Sheldon Silver and Carl Heastie from 2013 to 2018, now concedes he publicly trashed a woman's rape accusation on the word of the accused, without so much as speaking to the accuser first.
Morelle's affidavit is not the only sworn document shedding light on how Crothers' accusation was handled. Former Assemblyman and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer also submitted a sworn statement in the case, describing the night Crothers says Boxley assaulted her.
Stringer said he and Crothers stayed at the same hotel in Albany when the legislature was in session. On the night of June 29, 2001, he spoke with her. She was, in his words, "worried and upset" and "having difficulty speaking."
"Although Elizabeth was having difficulty speaking, she was able to tell me that she had gone to Michael Boxley's apartment with him and that they had kissed and that Boxley forced himself on her and raped her."
Stringer's sworn statement described a tampon that Crothers said had been "shoved deep inside her by Boxley when he raped her." He said Crothers "was upset and did not know what to do."
The former comptroller recalled discussing options with Crothers, going to a hospital, filing a police report, seeking mental health services. He said he expressed "unconditional support for Elizabeth regardless of whether or not she decided to make a report to the police, to the Assembly, or to the Assembly Speaker."
When the New York Post contacted Stringer on Monday, he declined further comment. But his sworn account stands in stark contrast to what the Assembly did next: an internal probe cleared Boxley.
The Assembly's exoneration of Boxley did not hold up. He was later indicted for raping another Assembly staffer, Rikki Shaw. On December 22, 2003, Boxley pleaded guilty to a lesser sexual misconduct charge, admitting in open court to having sexual intercourse with a 22-year-old Assembly staffer without her consent.
Morelle himself acknowledged that fact in his affidavit. Yet in his deposition in the Crothers case, Boxley denied raping Crothers and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 40 times.
The pattern is familiar in Albany, and in Democratic politics more broadly. Powerful insiders close ranks, internal investigations produce convenient results, and the women who come forward pay the price. It is a pattern that has surfaced in other cases involving Democratic officials facing serious allegations, where accountability arrives late or not at all.
Shaw, the woman at the center of Boxley's 2003 guilty plea, did not reveal her identity when Boxley was prosecuted. She was referred to only as "Jane Doe." Now, more than two decades later, she has decided to go public.
Shaw submitted an affidavit in support of Crothers and other abuse survivors. Her words were blunt, as reported by the Post:
"More than 20 years after I was raped, Albany is still protecting the politically connected instead of holding predators accountable."
Shaw's decision to come forward adds weight to Crothers' case and raises uncomfortable questions about whether the culture that shielded Boxley has meaningfully changed.
Those questions cut especially deep when the state's own attorney general is on the other side of the courtroom. Crothers filed her civil suit in 2023 under New York's Adult Survivors Act, naming the Assembly and the State of New York as defendants. Attorney General Letitia James's office said Monday it is defending the Assembly and the state government in its capacity as the state's legal counsel.
Crothers' attorney, Carrie Goldberg, did not mince words about the AG's posture in the case. She said her team expected James, who has publicly positioned herself as a champion for victims of sexual assault, to be "eager to make amends with Ms. Crothers."
"Instead, we've seen aggressive efforts to try to get Ms. Crothers' case thrown out, despite there being uncontroverted evidence that she was raped and horrifically retaliated against. It makes us question whether anything has meaningfully changed in New York politics."
Goldberg added that the defense has "made zero efforts to try to resolve the case," though she noted that was "frankly fine for us given Ms. Crothers' heaping evidence."
The gap between James's public brand and her office's courtroom conduct is worth noting. An attorney general who built a national profile on holding powerful men accountable now finds her office fighting to dismiss a rape victim's negligence claim against the very institution that cleared the accused. That tension is not unique to this case. Across the Democratic landscape, investigations into party figures often reveal a distance between public posture and private conduct.
The chronology of this case tells its own story. On June 29, 2001, Crothers told Stringer she had been raped by Boxley. Shortly after, Morelle, without ever speaking to Crothers, publicly declared he didn't "believe a word of it." An Assembly probe cleared Boxley.
Two years later, Boxley was indicted for raping Shaw. He pleaded guilty in December 2003 to sexual misconduct. Morelle continued to rise in Albany, serving as majority leader from 2013 to 2018 before moving to Congress. He did not apologize to Crothers until 2018, seventeen years after dismissing her accusation.
Crothers filed suit in 2023. The trial is set for Aug. 24. And only now, through sworn affidavits, is the full scope of what happened, and who looked the other way, becoming part of the public record.
The case fits a broader pattern in which questions of impropriety involving Democratic figures surface long after the damage is done, and accountability arrives only when forced by litigation or public pressure.
Several questions hang over the case as it moves toward trial. What exactly did the Assembly's internal probe consist of, and who directed it? Why did it take Morelle seventeen years to apologize? And why is the attorney general's office fighting so hard to dismiss a case built on sworn testimony from multiple witnesses and a guilty plea by the accused in a related crime?
Boxley's refusal to answer questions, invoking the Fifth Amendment more than 40 times in his deposition, only deepens the silence around what happened inside the Assembly in 2001. The institution that was supposed to protect its own staff instead protected its own power.
The Democratic Party has spent years telling voters it stands with survivors of sexual assault. Its leaders have built careers and raised fortunes on that promise. But when one of their own staffers said she was raped by one of their own aides, the party's most powerful men in Albany did what powerful men so often do: they believed the man with the title, not the woman with the bruises.
It is worth asking, as Democrats position themselves as aggressive enforcers of accountability, whether that energy ever extends to their own ranks, or only to their opponents.
Elizabeth Crothers waited more than twenty years for someone in power to say she deserved to be heard. The least Albany can do now is stop trying to make her wait longer.
