A New York State Senator who supported a sex crimes bill that allowed E. Jean Carroll to go after former president Donald Trump now calls the legislation unconstitutional after a former colleague accused him of rape, reported the New York Post.
N.Y. State Sen. Kevin Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat, vocally supported the Adult Survivors Act (ASA) in a 2021 vote, which Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) signed into law in May 2022, but it was allowed to lapse in November 2023.
The now-expired New York law opened a one-year temporary window for victims of sexual assault to pursue civil actions against their alleged attackers in cases, which had already exceeded the state’s statute of limitations.
The act was passed by the Democrat-controlled state legislature to allow litigants like Carroll to go after Trump with 30-year-old accusations that saw the former president hit with severe financial penalties.
Parker was accused of allegedly raping Olga Jean-Baptiste in her home in 2004 while she was working with the State Senator on Haitian relief efforts.
Jean-Baptiste made the allegations last November, just before the ASA expired.
Hochul refused to call for the Democrat to step down after the news broke, despite claiming to be disturbed by the news.
“I voted in favor of the [Adult Survivors Act] to ensure all New Yorkers can seek justice and be heard,” Parker told reporters after the case went public.
“These allegations are absolutely untrue. My work and advocacy will continue,” he said.
Parker has been scandal-prone since taking office in 2002, particularly regarding his violent temper.
He was hit with misdemeanor assault charges for hitting a NYC traffic agent who wrote him a ticket after he got into a road incident in Brooklyn, but charges were dropped after he completed an anger management course.
He was again found guilty of misdemeanor criminal mischief in 2010 after shoving and then breaking a New York Post photographer’s camera and was ordered by the courts to return to anger management school and given a three-year probation sentence.
Parker also lost his role as Majority Senate Whip, along with his chairmanship of the Energy Committee after being sentenced.
In 2018, Candice Giove, then a New York GOP spokeswoman, complained about Parker abusing his privileges when it was found that he unlawfully allowed a placard to be placed in a car parked in a bike lane that did not match his officially registered vehicle.
“It got to the bottom of this. The placard is assigned to @SenatorParker. However, the license plate # on the placard does not match the vehicle. So he either used it in another car or gave it to someone to use, both of which are not permitted,” said Giove in a tweet.
In response, Parker told Giove to go “Kill Yourself” in a tweet, which he then quickly deleted, but screenshots were taken before it was removed.
The Democrat later gave an apology but soon went after the Republican spokeswoman with another round of personal attacks.
In another act of irony, Parker was the main sponsor of a 2017 bill that aimed to boost suicide-prevention education on New York college campuses and was the backer of a separate bill that mandated that law enforcement review New York state residents’ social media history before they could purchase a firearm.