New York City DA Scrambles to Blame NYPD for Not Prosecuting Harvey Weinstein; NYPD Says They're Lying

A hot enough fire soon starts sparking off dry and rotten wood all around it.

There's a lot of corruption in government and big institutions like Hollywood. Everyone knows that. There are fixers who donate to key people to keep their clients out of jail, or who threaten witnesses to make them quiet.

It's practically begging to be exposed.

But it takes a major event to disturb the status quo and get people to start talking about it.

I think -- or at least hope -- that the Harvey Weinstein bombshell is going to have enormous collateral damage and be the size of scandal that actually gets written up in future high school history books, like Teapot Dome.

In March 2015, model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez told the NYPD that Weinstein had sexually assaulted her. The New Yorker published a recording obtained during the investigation in which Weinstein is heard admitting to groping Gutierrez.

Weinstein, in conversation with Gutierrez, admits to groping her. Here’s the audio: https://t.co/zSQbK5NV0c pic.twitter.com/vmrrSUp43w

-- The New Yorker (@NewYorker) October 10, 2017

...

The NYPD said it investigated a misdemeanor sexual abuse complaint against Weinstein at that time and referred the case to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The DA's office ultimately decided not to file charges.

A statement issued by Tuesday by Chief Assistant DA Karen Friedman read in part, "While the recording is horrifying to listen to, what emerged from the audio was insufficient to provide a crime under New York law, which requires prosecutors to establish criminal intent."

The DA's office claimed that the Special Victims Unit hadn't coordinated with the DA to learn what needed to be proven in the case -- like that you needed to establish "criminal intent" in a case about a guy grabbing a woman's tits.

Apparently the DA is claiming that you need Harvey Weinstein admitting on tape, "When I groped your breasts without permission, I had criminal intent to do so." Apparently it's not the sort of thing that can be inferred from circumstances or the common sense dictate that you do not grope a woman's breasts without permission.

Nope: The DA is claiming you need to get Weinstein on tape announcing his criminal intent, and also, that the SVU doesn't understand what it takes to prove a sex crime case. Because apparently this is their first rodeo.

A fair number of people are arrested for rubbing up against women on subway rides. Sexually. Is the DA claiming you need a confession of criminal intent to prosecute those cases? I would imagine they don't have that most of the time -- I would imagine that the facts alone, that a guy with an erection kept pushing up against a woman's butt, would prove the criminal intent behind them.

But not for Harvey Weinstein.

Cyrus Vance Jr. received $10,000 from Harvey Weinstein's lawyer David Boies shortly after his office declined to prosecute Weinstein. FYI.

The NYPD fired back, saying, "the case was carried out by experienced detectives and supervisors from NYPD’s Special Victims Unit."

"The detectives used well established investigative techniques. The recorded conversation with the subject corroborates the acts that were the basis for the victim’s complaint to the police a day earlier. This follow-up recorded conversation was just one aspect of the case against the subject," the statement continued. "This evidence, along with other statements and timeline information was presented to the office of the Manhattan District Attorney."

It’s something Pace University Law professor Bennett Gershman backs up.

"You are listening to a sexual pervert ply his trade," Gershman told CBS2's Brian Conybeare. “It’s so easy, and for a prosecutor to say there’s no proof of say there’s not proof of criminal intent? That's what the prosecutor Vance said, that's just so, so wrong."

Yes, because it's a lie. When a flasher exposes himself to a woman, you don't need a tape recording of him saying "When I showed this woman who I do not know my penis, I did so with the criminal intent to expose myself to an unwilling woman." The facts and circumstances prove the intent themselves.

Via Hot Air, reported by the New York Daily News, an anonymous NYPD source comes pretty close to alleging criminal intent on the part of the DA:

Members of the NYPD familiar with the case were furious at the suggestion that their work was subpar and said prosecutors were responsible for the softball treatment afforded the Hollywood bigwig.

"Ask the DA if they would have made the arrest if the guy's name was Harvey Schmuck," one police official said.

I like how the DA made sure he had a female subordinate putting his bullshit spin out.

posted by Ace at 03:51 PM

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