DA leads case against Weinstein
Vance has history of not pursuing sex abuse cases
NEW YORK — At least in the court of public opinion, the prosecutor leading a rape case against Harvey Weinstein may have more to prove than the charges alone.
But if Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is out to answer critics of his past decisions not to pursue sex cases against Weinstein and another powerful man, there was little sign of it as the movie mogul faced a judge Friday.
Steering clear of the cameras that flocked to the courthouse, Vance issued a circumspect statement: “Today’s charges reflect significant progress in this active, ongoing investigation.”
Itwastypicaloftheanything-but-flamboyant head of a storied prosecutors’ office with a long history of cases involving the famous and infamous. Subdued and guarded in public, Vance told The Associated Press in 2011: “I don’t think I’ve ever strayed off-message.”
But if going after Weinstein would put any prosecutor under a microscope, Vance is already there.
A state investigation has been examining how the Democratic DA handled a groping allegation against Weinstein three years ago. Women’s rights activists have protested outside Vance’s office.
And the DA has been shadowed by another high-profile sex case that he ultimately dropped — a
2011 attempted rape prosecution of former International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-kahn, one of whose lawyers is representing Weinstein.
A former defense lawyer and litigator — and the son of Carter-era Secretary of State Cyrus Vance — the DA won the job in his first run for public office in 2009.
Early on, he highlighted such initiatives as a new cybercrime unit and efforts to unclog overloaded misdemeanor courts.
Then a hotel maid accused StraussKahn — then a potential French presidential candidate — of trying to rape her in May 2011. He said the encounter was consensual.
Vance’s office initially called the proof against Strauss-kahn substantial and growing.
Just three months later, prosecutors dropped the case, saying they had developed doubts about the credibility of Strauss-kahn’s accuser.
Women’s rights groups urged Vance to press on with the prosecution, and the accuser’s lawyer said the DA denied her justice. She later reached a civil settlement with Strauss-kahn.
In the years since, Vance, 63, has positioned himself as a national criminal justice innovator. Thanks to massive penalties paid by banks accused of violating U.S. sanctions, he’s doled out millions of dollars to test rape-evidence kits around the country for DNA and joined with London’s police commissioner in an effort to prevent cyberattacks, among other, more local investments.