ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A disability rights activist has filed a complaint with New York State Police alleging that she was shoved twice inside the state Capitol by State Sen. Kevin Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat with a history of violent behavior.
Michael Carey said the confrontation with Sen. Parker happened on Wednesday when Carey approached Sen. Parker before a committee meeting and asked him to co-sponsor the bill. Parker was infuriated because he said the bill would address a “Martin Luther King type of situation” regarding disability discrimination, Carey said.
Carey said the senator came within inches of his face and yelled, “I don’t care.”
Carrie, who became an advocate after her son, Jonathan, died in state custody, said the father responded, “Don’t you care that your son is dead?”
Mr Carey said Mr Parker then grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him, causing him to stumble backwards, before shoving him again.
“I was in shock. I couldn’t believe what had happened,” Carey told The Associated Press.
“I expect the excitement to be just as strong as it was before the game,” Parker joked at the start of the committee meeting after the incident.
His office did not respond to a request for comment.
New York State Police said Wednesday they responded to a “disturbance” but did not provide further details.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ office did not respond to questions about the incident.
Parker has a history of physical confrontations.
In 2005, Parker was arrested on third-degree assault charges after punching a traffic officer who issued him a ticket for double parking. That same year, his statehouse pass was suspended for violating security regulations. Two former aides have accused Parker of assaulting them in separate incidents; one said he shoved her at a campaign office and broke her glasses. Parker has not been charged in either incident.
In 2009, Parker was arrested again after chasing a New York Post photographer and smashing his camera. He was eventually convicted of misdemeanor criminal damage to property. Then-Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith stripped Parker of his majority whip position.
Last year, Parker was accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman early in his career. The lawsuit is still pending. Parker has maintained that the rape accusations are “completely unfounded.”
Carey said he had sought Parker’s support for a bill that would require staff at state and private facilities to report suspected cases of abuse or neglect of vulnerable people to 911 operators.
____
Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.