ALBANY, NY (TIP): New York State lawmakers on Thursday, March 11, opened an impeachment inquiry into Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the surest sign yet that the governor was seeing his party turn against him amid growing scrutiny of a recent series of sexual harassment accusations, a New York times report says.

After a three-hour emergency meeting, the State Assembly announced that it would give its judiciary committee broad jurisdiction to investigate allegations of misconduct against Mr. Cuomo, including the sexual harassment claims and his administration’s handling of virus-related deaths of nursing home patients. The decision set the stage for what could be the state’s first impeachment effort in more than a century.

“The reports of accusations concerning the governor are serious,” the Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, a Democrat, said in a statement, adding that the “impeachment investigation” will encompass interviewing witnesses, subpoenaing documents and evaluating evidence.

The announcement came on the same day that 59 Democrats in the State Legislature — about 40 percent of the party’s members in the Assembly and the Senate — signed on to a statement demanding that Mr. Cuomo immediately resign in the wake of allegations from women, including current and former aides, who have accused him of harassment or inappropriate behavior.

Hours later, the police in Albany, N.Y., confirmed that they had been notified of one such accusation by the New York State Police, an incident at the Executive Mansion that was characterized as something that might have risen “to the level of a crime.” The move followed the publication of an article in The Times Union of Albany on Wednesday that detailed claims leveled by an unidentified aide to the governor, who accused Mr. Cuomo of groping her at the governor’s mansion, where he lives, late last year.