A 39-year-old Glenville woman is planning legal action against Saratoga Springs Police Chief Christopher Cole and the city for identifying her as the woman with whom Cole exchanged sexually explicit text messages and photos.
Cole released a statement Thursday admitting he had an “intermittent” personal relationship with the woman and, using his personal cell phone, sometimes exchanged sexually explicit photos and text messages with her. He also named the woman, Laurie Masi, in the statement.
Masi has retained The DeLorenzo Law Firm to represent her in a civil rights case against the city, its police department and Cole, said Paul DeLorenzo of the Schenectady-based law firm. DeLorenzo said Friday that Cole’s decision to “publicly identify Ms. Masi, a private citizen who simply wanted to distance herself from him and his unwanted behaviors, has had immediate consequences for Ms. Masi and her children and sends a chilling message to those who seek only to be left alone.”
Masi has children ages 6 and 10, but is not currently married, DeLorenzo said.
Shortly after a local television station contacted Saratoga Springs Public Safety Commissioner Richard Wirth this week about a woman who planned to release information about Cole and his sexually explicit text message and photos, Cole “publicly identified Ms. Masi in a news release that grossly mischaracterized the nature of their relationship,” DeLorenzo said in a statement.
DeLorenzo said Cole and Masi did have a consensual relationship, but that Masi had told Cole to stop sending the explicit texts and photos.
Cole said in a statement that he sent one explicit photo on his cellphone while he was on his lunch break, but “behind closed doors” in his office in Saratoga Springs City Hall.
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