Could disgraced N.Y. attorney general be charged with a crime?
NEW YORK — Detailed accusations that state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman abused women were enough to force him to resign, but are they enough to charge him with a crime?
Investigators said they are just beginning to look into the allegations made by four women who told The New Yorker magazine they were slapped, choked and verbally abused by Schneiderman, often during sexual intercourse. The women strongly rejected his explanation that any abuse was the result of consensual, intimate “role-playing.”
One of the women told the magazine Schneiderman hit her so hard her ear bled, and another said he left on her face a mark that was still visible the next day. At least one said she took a photo of her injury.
The chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, Dermot Shea, said investigators would interview the women in detail, but he couldn’t say whether any charges would result.
Legal experts said that based on the stories, the most likely charge would be a lower-level assault. And since Schneiderman was accused of choking at least one woman, he could potentially be prosecuted under a law he helped pass in 2010, which made choking a misdemeanor. The statute of limitations is two years to bring charges for such crimes.
Strangulation or an assault that causes a serious physical injury has a five-year window to bring charges.
If investigators find evidence Schneiderman verbally abused someone but did not cause visible physical injury, it would be considered harassment, a violation that has a statute of limitations of one year. That could come into play because some of the abuse the women allege happened in 2016 and possibly earlier.
Another complication is that the women didn’t go to the police at the time, which is common among victims of domestic violence.