Leaders at Albany Med Health System have gone quiet in the face of a sexual assault allegation against their president and CEO, Daniel Pickett III, who is now locked in dueling civil litigation with his former girlfriend in Manhattan state court. A temporary restraining order bars Pickett from contacting the woman, Marlee Cohen, through October 28, even as he pursues a defamation lawsuit against her seeking at least $1 million in damages.
The allegations and the health system's silence were first detailed by The Daily Gazette, which reported that Raimundo Archibold Jr., chair of the Albany Med system board, did not return multiple requests for comment about the allegation. The health system's communication office likewise did not respond to an inquiry about whether Pickett faced any disciplinary action, according to the same report.
Cohen filed a civil claim against Pickett in Manhattan State Supreme Court this month, accusing him of sexually assaulting her in the early morning hours of February 15, 2025, inside a Manhattan apartment the two shared during their 16-month relationship, per her legal claim as reported by the Gazette. She reported the alleged assault to the New York Police Department in March 2026 and reasserted her allegations in open court this week, the outlet noted. Pickett has denied sexually assaulting Cohen.
Restraining Order and Competing Lawsuits
A New York City family court judge granted Cohen the temporary restraining order on August 11, prohibiting Pickett from communicating with her through the end of October. Cohen's legal claim states that she withdrew from friends and social relationships, isolated herself at home, canceled professional meetings, and could not pursue new work opportunities in the aftermath of the alleged incident, with her ability to function personally and professionally significantly declining, according to the claim detailed by the Gazette.
Pickett has responded with his own defamation lawsuit against Cohen, alleging she falsely accused him of sexual assault and damaged his reputation. The suit claims the accusations caused economic loss, humiliation, and emotional distress, and Pickett is seeking at least $1 million in damages. Attorney Matthew Chauvin provided a letter stating that Cohen's claim was false and part of an alleged smear campaign, the Gazette reported.
A separate legal dispute between the two involves more than $300,000 worth of furniture. Pickett claims Cohen removed the furniture from the apartment without his permission, while Cohen believes it was a gift to her, according to the reporting.
A Decade on the Board Before the Top Job
Pickett has led Albany Med Health System since December 2025, a promotion that capped more than 13 years of service on the system's board dating back to 2012, according to Becker's Hospital Review. He became system board chairman in July 2025 before succeeding Dr. Dennis P. McKenna as president and CEO just months later. Archibold then stepped into the board chair role Pickett vacated, according to the same account.
Albany Med Health System is the Capital Region's largest private employer, with more than 16,000 employees and 1,520 hospital beds across four regional hospitals and an academic medical college, generating a regional economic impact exceeding $6 billion annually, per Capital Region MD News. In May 2026, Pickett launched First Choice 2030, a strategic initiative meant to position the system as the region's preferred academic health provider across its 100 clinical locations, the outlet reported. Just last month, the system announced new executive hires under Pickett, including Dr. Jennifer Rabaglia as Chief Quality Officer and Robert Freeman as Chief Digital Officer, according to The Post-Star.
Prior Scrutiny at Pickett's Former Company
Before joining Albany Med's executive ranks, Pickett co-founded the Saratoga County-based online mental health service Aptihealth in 2017 and served as its president and CEO from April 2020 through June 2025. A former Aptihealth employee filed a whistleblower complaint in July 2023 that resulted in the company admitting to improper billing practices for patient no-shows between 2020 and 2023, according to CBS6 Albany.
Aptihealth agreed in June 2026 to pay $300,000 to the federal government and New York State, along with $55,000 to the whistleblower, to settle the billing claims. Pickett is not individually named in the settlement agreement, which was reached after he had already left the company, the station reported.
Albany Med has also faced local pushback over other restructuring decisions under Pickett's leadership. Unions and residents raised objections in 2025 and 2026 to plans converting the system's regional affiliate, Columbia Memorial Health in Hudson, into a 25-bed critical access hospital while expanding behavioral health services, a move administrators argued would rightsize underutilized medical-surgical beds, according to The Columbia Paper.
For now, the questions raised by the Gazette's reporting remain unanswered: whether the Albany Med board has conducted any internal review or engaged independent counsel regarding the allegations, how board members view Pickett's pending court matters, and what protocols, if any, govern executive conduct when a civil restraining order is issued against a top health system officer. Neither Archibold nor the system's communications office has responded to those questions, the Gazette reported.
