Another Harvey hiccup
2nd DA staffer exits
A second member of the Harvey Weinstein prosecution team quit the Manhattan DA’s Office last month amid controversy over whether the lead investigator — or lead prosecutor — covered up damaging evidence against an accuser, The Post has learned.
Veteran prosecutor Jennifer Gaffney, deputy chief of the Sex Crimes Unit, was thrown a going-away party on Sept. 20, sources said Monday.
Her party took place one day before ADA Rachel Hochhauser, who was “second chair” on the Weinstein trial team, also departed, for a job at a private investigations and security firm.
It was unclear whether Gaffney — whose husband, Christopher Schmidt, is an NYPD lieutenant — quit to start a new job.
Gaffney, 45, declined to comment outside her home Monday.
According to reports issued by Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr., Gaffney and Hochhauser comprised half of the four-member team prosecuting the disgraced mogul on sex-assault charges.
Both Gaffney and Hochhauser left the DA’s Office at around the time lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon wrote a Sept. 12 letter to the defense alleging that NYPD Detective Nicholas DiGaudio had admitted withholding information from a witness he interviewed in February.
According to Illuzzi-Orbon’s letter, the unidentified woman told prosecutors that Lucia Evans — who has accused Weinstein of forcing himself on her in 2014 — confided that she performed oral sex on Weinstein after he offered to get her an acting job, the letter says.
DiGaudio claims he informed Illuzzi-Orbon about the Evans snafu and that a fellow cop was present at the time, said law-enforcement sources.
Last week, prosecutors dropped the charge involving Evans.
Weinstein lawyer Benjamin Brafman said he would now seek to have the entire case tossed.
Vance spokesman Danny Frost said Gaffney’s resignation — which she submitted July 27, effective Sept. 7 — had nothing to do with the Weinstein case.