ALBANY, NY – A disability rights activist has filed a complaint with New York State Police that Sen. Kevin Parker, a Brooklyn Democrat with a history of violent behavior, pushed her twice in the state capitol building.
Michael Carey said his confrontation with Parker came after he approached the senator before a committee meeting Wednesday and asked him to support the bill. The legislation of the lawyer “Dr. a Martin Luther King-type situation of discrimination against people with disabilities”.
Carey said she was inches from the senator’s face and said, “I don’t care.”
Carey, who became a lawyer after her son Jonathan died while in state care, said she was like, ‘Don’t you care that my son is dead?’
She said Parker then grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her, causing her to stumble back. Carey said Parker pushed her away again.
“I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what happened,” Carey told The Associated Press.
Parker opened the committee meeting after the event, joking that he hoped it would be “as exciting as the pregame.”
His office did not respond to requests for comment.
New York State Police said Wednesday they were responding to a “disturbance” but did not elaborate.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ office did not respond to questions about the incident.
Parker has had physical altercations.
In 2005, he was arrested on a third-degree assault charge after he was accused of punching a traffic agent who gave him a ticket for double parking. In the same year, he was temporarily suspended from state buildings for violating security regulations. Two former aides complained that Parker physically assaulted them in separate incidents. One of them said that he pushed her and broke her glasses at the election headquarters. Parker was not charged in either incident.
In 2009, Parker was arrested again after stalking a New York Post photographer and damaging his camera. He was eventually convicted of the crime. Then-Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith stripped Parker of his position as majority whip.
Last year it was Parker accused in his alleged assault on a woman early in his legislative career. The lawsuit is still ongoing. Parker called the rape accusation “absolutely false.”
Carey said she wanted Parker to support legislation that would require employees at public and private facilities to report suspected abuse or neglect of vulnerable people to 911 operators.