Gentile Cancels a Fund-Raiser
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Council Member Vincent Gentile, who stands accused of sexual harassment by one of his aides, has canceled a fund-raiser scheduled for tonight.
The Re-Elect Gentile ’05 fund-raiser was supposed to be held at the city government watering hole 17 Murray Restaurant in Lower Manhattan. The council member’s political consulting firm, however, made a round of phone calls yesterday to call off the event.
Mr. Gentile, a Democrat from Brooklyn, did not return calls yesterday, but a spokesman for the political consulting firm, the Advance Group, said the fund-raiser has not yet been rescheduled. “He just thought the timing was not right,” Michael Gaspard said.
Last week, Mr. Gentile’s chief of staff, John Martin, 26, filed a sexual harassment complaint that accuses his boss of making verbal advances, including asking him to share hotel rooms on out-of-town trips and escorting him to his apartment after nights out at bars in their district.
The complaint is the second against a council member in the past year. Council Member Allan Jennings Jr. of Queens is facing five charges of sexual and behavioral misconduct against several of his employees.
