The woman who dropped her legal action against a top adviser to Governor Paterson after the Governor and his minions allegedly pressured her to hush up, has spoken to the press for the first time. In an interview with the Daily News and WNBC-TV, Sherr-una Booker says she will again pursue charges against Paterson's former aide David Johnson, who allegedly flew into a rage last Halloween and choked her, tore off her costume, and threw her against a mirrored dresser.
Booker, who has been silent since the scandal was exposed and ended Paterson's election bid, now says she was motivated to come forward after a domestic violence victim sought her out at the Harlem hospital where she works. "She said, 'Aren't you that lady?'... She had given birth to a child and he was about 4 months old, I remember. And her spouse broke her arm. And she had to take care of this 4-month-old child with a broken arm, and it wasn't easy. She said that she didn't speak out for years. She never said a word. She'd make excuses. And finally she did get away. But she never said anything."
Booker declined to elaborate on the incident but says she stands by her statements in Family Court last November, when she said that New York state troopers had been "harassing me to drop the charges and I wouldn't." The Attorney General's office is still investigating what role Paterson and his staff played in influencing Booker to drop the charges, but as the story broke, five top administration officials resigned. (Here's a handy timeline of how it all played out in February.) Booker says she'll be filing charges against Johnson as soon as possible, and tells NBC, "Being a Christian, I always expect the truth to come out."
