Court records: NYC woman who accused Paterson aide of assault says state police pressured her

Court records detail Paterson aide domestic case

NEW YORK — Sherruna Booker said she wasn’t sure her domestic-violence case against her boyfriend, a top adviser to Gov. David Paterson, would be taken seriously by city court officials.

“I’m just — I’m glad you’re doing this because I thought it was going to be swept under the table because he’s like a government official,” Booker told a Family Court official ordering a restraining order on Nov. 2, two days after she reported a violent argument with David Johnson about a Halloween costume.

She said state troopers “kept calling and harassing me to drop the charges.”

Suddenly, on Feb. 8, she did.

Booker, 40, abandoned her case against Johnson after receiving a telephone call from Paterson, The New York Times reported.

Paterson’s office acknowledges he talked to the woman but says she placed the call, and a spokesman for the governor has denied anyone tried to keep the woman from pursuing a domestic-violence case. State police say they won’t comment on the case while it’s being investigated by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who’s widely believed to be considering a bid for the governor’s office in November.

Paterson, who rose to governor in 2008 after former Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a prostitution scandal, says he did nothing wrong and will run for a full four-year term despite calls from fellow Democrats for him to step aside. He has suspended Johnson without pay and hasn’t made Johnson available to comment or answer questions.

There was no telephone number listed for Booker’s home, and her lawyer declined repeated attempts by The Associated Press to seek comment Thursday.

Family Court transcripts obtained by the AP show a woman who says she’s a victim of domestic violence trying to follow official legal procedures but suddenly abandoning her efforts.

“You have bruises on your arms?” the court official, called a court attorney referee, asks Booker.

“Yes,” she replies.

Booker appeared in Family Court three times after she filed a police report Oct. 31 saying Johnson had choked her, thrown her against a mirror and tried to rip her Halloween costume from her body at her Bronx home. City police returned to her home Nov. 4 on a follow-up visit as part of their domestic-violence prevention program.

Booker, who has a 13-year-old son, told Judge Andrea Masley that she and Johnson had lived together for four years and he had kept another apartment in Manhattan, where she thought he went after the confrontation.

“He was living with me. He works for Governor Paterson,” she said. “He’s his senior adviser. But I got into contact with — the state police contacted me because they didn’t want me to get an order of protection or press charges.”

On Nov. 9, city police went to serve Johnson with a restraining order, but he refused it, Family Court documents show.

Booker expressed frustration at not being able to serve Johnson with the order.

At a hearing Dec. 17, Johnson’s attorney asked that no restraining order be issued because the couple had broken up and weren’t living together anymore.

They all agreed to return to court Feb. 8. Johnson’s attorney appeared, but Booker didn’t — halting the case because domestic cases are vacated if the petitioner doesn’t show up.

“O.K., 11:33. The case is dismissed without prejudice,” the judge said. “Thank you very much.”