PLAY
Cy donor repped Cashman in suit vs. stalker
YANKEES general manager Brian Cashman had a powerful ally when he filed criminal charges against his alleged stalker in 2012 — Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.’s longtime friend and political donor.
Thomas Thacher repped Cashman when he contacted Vance’s office about the alleged stalker, Louise Meanwell, and even aided prosecutors in building a case against her, according to court filings.
Vance — who has come under fire over campaign contributions and dropping probes into producer Harvey Weinstein and President Trump’s kids — ultimately hit Meanwell with 52 charges, including extorting $6,000 in hush money from Cashman and harassing other men.
Thacher’s ties to Vance didn’t go unnoticed by Meanwell and her lawyers.
In a 2015 court filing, her lawyer Peter Gleason called the charges “overkill” and highlighted the connection between Thacher and Vance.
“Once Thacher took control of the ‘Meanwell situation’ on behalf of Cashman, Meanwell found herself under the crushing weight of a Manhattan district attorney prosecution,” wrote Gleason, who announced Friday that he was joining the Manhattan DA race as a write-in candidate.
“Mr. Thacher enjoys a close relationship with both the New York Yankees and the Manhattan district attorney’s office.”
Indeed Thacher has family ties with the Vances that go back more than one generation. Vance’s dad spent most of his legal career at the white-shoe law firm of Thacher’s father.
Thacher has also been one of Vance’s biggest boosters.
Since 2008, he has personally donated $20,985 to Vance’s campaign — including $5,000 while working for Cashman, records show. His investigative firm, Thacher Associates, has made nearly $40,000 in contributions to the DA’s campaign.
Vance has faced recent criticism for accepting donations from defense lawyers whose clients were the targets of criminal probes.
He passed on prosecuting Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. after his office opened an investigation into whether they lied to prospective buyers at a development dubbed Trump SoHo.
A story by WNYC, ProPublica and The New Yorker said that President Trump’s personal attorney Marc Kasowitz met with Vance in May 2012 about the investigation. A few months after the probe ended, Kasowitz donated $31,993 to Vance. The DA said this month he would return the money.
The district attorney has also been pilloried for his handling of allegations that Weinstein sexually assaulted model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez in 2015.
NYPD investigators believed they had enough evidence to arrest Weinstein, who has been accused by at least two dozen actresses of being a sexual predator. Vance said he nixed charges against Weinstein because his top sex crimes prosecutor believed the case wasn’t provable.
Weinstein’s lawyers, including Elkan Abramowitz, met with prosecutors before the case was dropped. Abramowitz has given a total of $26,500 in contributions to Vance — $2,100 came after the DA declined to prosecute the Hollywood honcho.
Vance has said that contributions have played no role in his decisions on investigations.
A spokeswoman for Thacher referred questions to the DA’s office. The Yankees did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwell was arrested for stalking Cashman in February 2012. She said she and Cashman had a 10-month fling, but it went south when she learned she wasn’t the married Yankee exec’s only mistress. Records show Thacher provided prosecutors with two BlackBerry phones to search as part of their investigation.
In a rare so-called Alford plea deal, she fessed up to blackmailing Cashman — but she did not have to admit guilt. She was sentenced to five years’ probation.
In an Alford plea deal, a defendant maintains innocence but acknowledges the prosecution has enough evidence to
likely obtain a conviction.