Plans to sue DA for false claim in sex frameup
A HIGH-PROFILE private eye accused of blackmailing a witness takes the prosecutor to court.
A rerun episode of “Magnum, P.I.”?
Nope. It’s a real-life drama involving a celebrity gumshoe, prostitution charges and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.
Private investigator-turned-reality show personality Vincent Parco was busted in September on allegations he tried to bribe a witness against a man accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl. Prosecutors said Parco’s firm tried to discredit the witness by setting up a relative with a prostitute and recording the tryst.
But Parco, 67, said the DA is spinning tall tales — and he says he has the press release to prove it.
Prosecutors publicized Parco’s bust in September by announcing witness-tampering charges against him that were never actually brought, the ex-“Parco P.I.” star charges in a recent notice of claim, the first step in a lawsuit.
“Private investigator and two others indicted on charges of witness tampering and unlawful surveillance for allegedly trying to keep victim of child sexual assaults from testifying against her alleged abuser,” reads the headline in a Sept. 19 press release from the DA’s office.
The release went on to say Parco (photo inset) “and a client have been indicted for allegedly trying to influence a woman to stop cooperating in the prosecution of a man who allegedly sexually abused her as a child.”
The problem, according to Parco’s attorney, is that he wasn’t indicted on a charge of witness tampering.
The Brooklyn-based private investigator with a colorful past — whose show aired on Court TV in 2005 and 2006 — faces charges of dissemination of unlawful surveillance and promoting prostitution in the third and fourth degrees, all felonies.
Prosecutors believe he was part of accused predator Samuel Israel’s plot to pressure his accuser, now an adult, to stop cooperating against him by shaming a male relative of hers.
Israel, 45, was charged in 2016 with engaging in sexual acts with the woman when she was 12. He hired Parco’s firm to dig up dirt to help his defense — but prosecutors said Parco went too far
Parco and associate Tanya Freudenthaler, 41, allegedly set up recorded trysts between the relative and prostitutes to put pressure on the alleged victim to quit her case.
Parco denies participation in any back-down scheme.
“Clearly, the Kings County district attorney’s office used Mr. Parco’s celebrity status as a hook in furtherance to publicize their case,” said Parco’s lawyer, Peter Gleason.
“Sending out a press release claiming Parco was indicted for things he was not perverts due process.”
Parco, in the notice against the city, also insists the release “is crafted in such a malicious way as to falsely implicate (him) to the abuse of a child.”
In a career that’s spanned “several decades,” Parco has “never once accepted employment when it was adversarial to a minor,” the court papers state.
The DA’s office deferred to the city Law Department for comment because of the pending litigation. A Law Department spokesman declined to comment.