Attorney Sanford Rubenstein, as he has done in so many cases, won another decision from the district attorney’s office, but this time he was the accused, and the prosecutor found no basis to proceed on the charges of rape.
“Given the available evidence,” a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement Monday, “the degree of the complainant’s recollection of what occurred at the suspect’s apartment, and the results of toxicological testing, neither the provable facts nor the applicable law support a prosecution in this matter.”
Rubenstein, 70, said he was “very pleased” with the decision, and so was his attorney, Benjamin Brafman, who had won a similar case for Dominique Strauss-Khan three years ago. “We are obviously pleased that this investigation is over, and this outrageous lie has been put to rest.”
It may be a charge put to rest by Brafman and his client, but attorney Kenneth Montgomery, representing the woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted after a birthday party for the Rev. Al Sharpton, voiced his objections in a long email.
“We want to reiterate that we find Cy Vance’s office to be incredibly inept in their investigation and refusal to arrest our client’s attacker and present this case to a grand jury,” Montgomery wrote. “Not only did she suffer bruises, but she stated repeatedly that she does not use marijuana, and she never consented to sex with Mr. Rubenstein. It should be noted that her toxicology came back positive for marijuana, and the NYPD recovered not only marijuana and marijuana seeds from the attacker’s home, but they also recovered marijuana cookies, which our client was given by her attacker.”
Montgomery stressed that his client did not smoke marijuana. Moreover, he said, assailing Vance, “Even more egregious in this case is the repeated and consistent leaks in this case. While we walked to the meeting, our client had to hear that Cy Vance’s office was not going forward with the case. The office didn’t have the common decency and professionalism to inform the complainant of their decision not to go forward, but they had time to inform Mr. Rubenstein and his attorney and numerous press outlets.”
From the outset of the incident, Rubenstein claimed that the rendezvous and sex with the 42-year-old National Action Network official was consensual. When Sharpton heard of the allegations, he was livid and moved to disassociate himself from Rubenstein, with whom he had collaborated in several high-profile cases, including the Eric Garner tragedy.
But the linkage between the lawyer and the reverend was given fresh currency in a report Tuesday that said a Viagra prescription under Sharpton’s name was among the items taken by police from Rubenstein’s residence during the investigation.
Said Sharpton, “I don’t know nothing about that.”