Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe NEW YORK, May 12 (UPI) -- A New York lawyer accused of grabbing a judge's inner thigh and buttocks says the incident was a result of spastic movements from his cerebral palsy. Hippocrate Mertsaris, 35, who uses a wheelchair, was charged with sexual abuse and sexual harassment for allegedly touching the female Taxi and Limousine Commission judge inappropriately during a meeting at her office, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday. Advertisement Wyatt Gibbons, a lawyer for Mertsaris, said his client admits to touching the judge, but the action was involuntary. "He whacked her in the butt but it wasn't sexual abuse," Gibbons said. "He has spastic movements." He said Mertsaris requires the assistance of a healthcare aide in his everyday life. "If he was starving to death and had a hamburger in front of him he couldn't lean over to pick it up," Gibbons said. The first hearing in the case was set for June 15.
