State Sen. Kevin Parker speaks during an Energy Committee meeting in February 2023.
NYS Senate Media Services
Brooklyn state Sen. Kevin Parker has been accused of raping a woman in 2004, early in his tenure as a state legislator, according to a new lawsuit filed against him last week.
The lawsuit was filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Friday by Olga Jean-Baptiste, who says Parker raped her at her apartment after discussing relief efforts for Haiti following devastating flooding in the Caribbean nation in 2004.
In her suit, Jean-Baptiste — who was 31 years old at the time of the alleged incident — says she coordinated with Parker’s office to deliver aid to Haiti following the floods, which killed some 3,000 people in the country that year. Parker, a Democrat, was in the middle of his first term in the state Senate representing the Flatbush area, which has a considerable population hailing from Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean.
After she returned from a trip to Haiti to deliver supplies, Parker suggested meeting Jean-Baptiste at her apartment to pick up photos and discuss the work she undertook, according to the lawsuit. They reviewed the trip for a few minutes in her living room and exchanged photos — but when Jean-Baptiste says she rose to say goodbye, she found herself paralyzed with fear when Parker allegedly grabbed hold of both of her wrists.
Jean-Baptiste then alleges Parker took her down the hallway of her apartment to her bedroom, where he made a sexual remark and laid her face-down on her bed. At that point, Jean-Baptiste claims Parker raped her.
The plaintiff says she never consented to any of the sexual acts which she alleges Parker forced upon her.
Inquiries to Parker and to Jean-Baptiste’s lawyers were not immediately returned. Jean-Baptiste could not immediately be reached for further comment.
A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins called the allegations “extremely disturbing.”
“These allegations…
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