Brendan J. Lyons is reporting for the Times Union the attorneys for a woman fired from her job with the Division of Criminal Justice Services for her testimony in a sexual harassment investigation told a federal magistrate last week they suspect the decision to fire her may have been made or authorized by someone in the governor's office. The disclosure was made during a pretrial discovery conference in a federal lawsuit filed in 2018 by Gina L. Bianchi, the DCJS attorney who was terminated from her position and told it was a result of her testimony in the sexual harassment investigation involving other female employees. In that case, Bianchi accused the agency's leader, acting Commissioner Michael C. Green, of covering up the allegations against a former forensics director, Brian J. Gestring. Following her dismissal, Bianchi, who formerly held a senior-level position, was able to fall back into a junior-level position because of Civil Service rules, but she suffered a $44,000-a-year pay cut and lost her senior status. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has declined to comment on the case. The last time a journalist asked him about about it, Cuomo said he did not know enough of the details to comment. Richard Azzopardi, a Cuomo spokesman, August 30, said the assertion that someone in the governor's office authorized Bianchi's termination is "completely false." Bianchi's case underscores what her attorneys and the attorneys for other women, as well as public records indicate is a pattern in state agencies of punishing accusers while high-ranking male employees accused of sexual harassment or other workplace misconduct have received private counseling memos or job transfers, but no formal discipline. Read the full story in the Times Union.