ALBANY — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon is calling out Gov. Andrew Cuomo after the Times Union's Brendan Lyons reported that his counsel Alphonso David was briefed on the decision by top officials at the state Division of Criminal Justice Services to terminate a female employee who spoke to investigators from the state Inspector General's office about misconduct allegations against the head of the agency's forensics lab.

The governor's press office claims David referred the matter to the Governor's Office of Employee Relations after learning about the retaliation, which also including DCJS' transfer of another female employee who spoke to the IG about abuse claims against Brian Gestring. Last fall, the IG recommended the agency should discipline Gestring and two other DCJS officials who failed to adequately respond to the allegations against him.

DCJS, however, failed to take that action, and instead conducted its own investigation that it claimed exonerated the officials. The agency has described its treatment of the two women as "appropriate actions ... to maintain the appropriate work environment at DCJS."

Neither David nor any other Cuomo administration official took action to undo the agency's retaliation against the women.

Gestring, who disputes the allegations against him, recently filed a petition seeking a "name-clearing hearing" by the state.

In a statement Monday morning, Nixon said that "if reporters hadn't discovered the retaliation, would Gov. Cuomo have ever done anything to punish this systemic sexual harasser? New Yorkers deserve better than a governor who ignores the survivors and, instead, chooses to shield and even promote those who have been accused. Cuomo has allowed a culture of harassment, silence and retaliation to permeate in Albany and across the state."

After the Times Union initially reported on the matter in March, state officials moved far more quickly to fire Gestring for an unrelated offensive comment he allegedly made at an offsite training event. The Cuomo administration then revealed it had asked yet another entity, the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, to look into the matter.

Almost nine months after DCJS took action against the two women, it's unclear whether the GOER probe or the JCOPE investigation have reached any conclusions.

Cuomo's press secretary Dani Lever said in a statement that the Executive Chamber "took action and referred the DJCS wrongful termination allegations to the agency tasked with investigating these cases immediately — not months — after they came to our attention. We take every allegation of workforce bullying and harassment seriously, which is why we proposed and successfully passed new reforms in this year's budget and why we believe that misconstruing facts or blatantly lying to score political points in a campaign is beyond the pale and hurts the very victims of this misconduct who we are trying to help."