‘Had to cut ties’
Garner kin: Hard to ax Sandy after rape rap
THE FAMILY of Eric Garner said Saturday they agonized over the decision to drop scandal-scarred legal eagle Sanford Rubenstein.
Garner’s widow, speaking out for the first time since Rubenstein was accused of rape, said the disturbing allegations kept her up at night.
“Rubenstein and (his partner, Scott Rynecki) were very good to us for the last three months,” Esaw Snipes said.
“It’s nothing personal against the previous lawyers, but we thought it would be better for the family if we weren’t involved. We had to cut ties.”
“It was a decision we tossed and turned (over),” added Snipes in a press conference at the Harlem headquarters of the National Action Network. “I called my mother-in-law in the middle of the night, asked her, ‘What we gonna do?’ ”
The Daily News was first to reveal on Thursday that the Garner family canned Rubenstein and tapped civil rights lawyer Jonathan Moore to represent them in their $75 million lawsuit against the city.
The move came after the Rev. Al Sharpton, a close Rubenstein associate for nearly two decades, cut ties with the publicity-loving lawyer he used to call “Brother Rubenstein.”
“In a case like this we were in between a rock and a hard place,” said Snipes’ mother, Gwen Carr.
“I hope they don’t take it personal, because it’s not personal, it’s business. trying to get justice.”
Moore, speaking at the Saturday press conference, urged Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan to bring charges against the officers who put the 43-year-old father of six in a fatal police chokehold in July.
“It’s been almost three months since Eric Garner died and there’s a video,” Moore said.
“There needs to be movement on a criminal charge against these officers.”
“At this point,” Moore added,
We’re “I have to say I don’t really have much confidence in the Staten Island DA.”
Rubenstein, as is his style, appeared with Garner’s family in countless press conferences following the Staten Island man’s death.
But that relationship soured after The News first reported that Rubenstein, 70, was accused of raping a top National Action Network official at his Manhattan penthouse following Sharpton’s 60th birthday bash.
No charges have been filed, and Rubenstein has vehemently denied assaulting the 42-year-old woman after bringing her back to his E. 64th St. pad on Oct. 1.
The investigation is likely take at least another week, and possibly even longer, sources said.
Sharpton, for his part, praised Moore and said Rubenstein voluntarily bowed out of the case.
“To his credit, Mr. Rubenstein said, ‘I should not be a distraction. I’m gonna step out,’ ” Sharpton
said.