Letter Demands Arrest Of High-Powered Lawyer Sanford Rubenstein
NEW YORK (CBSNewYoek/AP) -- There was a call for action Wednesday in the lurid sex assault case involving prominent civil rights attorney Sanford Rubenstein.
The attorney for the victim cited graphic details of the incident in a call for his arrest, CBS 2's Marcia Kramer reported.
Three weeks have passed since Rubenstein allegedly raped a woman on the board of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network. Despite police officers carting out bags of evidence from his posh Upper East Side apartment -- even backing up a van to confiscate his mattress – there have been no charges filed against Rubenstein.
"I think women should be concerned about how the Manhattan District Attorney's Office chooses to prosecute a case where you have a prominent, wealthy, powerful person being charged with a crime, because they don't apply these principles to the regular guy," said Kenneth Montgomery, attorney for the alleged victim.
Montgomery demanded Rubenstein's arrest on a minimum of third-degree rape, sending a letter to District Attorney Cyrus Vance that makes public what he claims his client went through after she went home with Rubenstein and reportedly passed out after a megawatt Sharpton birthday bash.
He says the woman woke up: "… in a foggy state to find her attacker on top of her, sexually assaulting her, with bloody condoms laying around her. The victim suffered bruising on each arm, which is consistent with being held down."
The letter to the DA also claims the woman suffered bleeding consistent with a sexual attack and that a hospital rape examination showed the same thing, Kramer reported.
"I think it sends an absolute chilling message, the fact that they have not even authorized an arrest to perhaps present this to a grand jury," Montgomery said. "I think it is very shameful."
Rubenstein's attorney called the letter's allegations "offensive and patently false."
"The reason there has not been any arrest of Mr. Rubenstein is because all of the evidence to date points to consensual sex between two consenting adults who were both active, and awake throughout," attorney Benjamin Brafman said.
District Attorney Vance declined to comment on the letter and what the attorney said happened that night, but a spokeswoman told Kramer the investigation is still "open and active."
Rubenstein has worked closely with the National Action Network, representing prominent clients like the family of Eric Garner, the Staten Island man who died in police custody.
Sharpton said the woman who filed the complaint is a top official within NAN and that the accusations put him in a difficult position, given his relationship with both parties.
"Sandy and I have become friends, but the young lady who made the accusation is a top official," Sharpton said earlier this month. "Sandy has no official capacity with NAN. She does and I respect her and she's been very helpful to us, so we're like between this situation."
Rubenstein withdrew from the Garner case amid the allegations earlier this month. Rubenstein's partner, Scott Rynecki, said that he and his team of lawyers have taken over the case.
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