TROUBLE FROM THE GET-GO
The criminal case against Harvey Weinstein was in trouble even before he was busted in May, with the lead prosecutor replaced following clashes with NYPD investigators — and even with one of movie mogul’s accusers, The Post has learned.
Veteran sex-crimes prosecutor Maxine Rosenthal had been trying to go slow against Weinstein despite mounting public outrage over the barrage of #MeToo allegations against the producer, law-enforcement sources said.
“Maxine was the voice trying to be conservative in the case,” said a source in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Tensions between the DA’s Office and NYPD were already simmering due to DA Cyrus Vance Jr.’s decision not to charge Weinstein for allegedly groping model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez in 2015, even though cops had secretly recorded the producer apologizing to her.
The situation worsened when prosecutors also refused to bring charges over allegations by actress Paz de la Huerta that Weinstein had twice raped her in her apartment in 2010, sources said.
That decision came despite thenNYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce telling reporters in November that the actress was “credible,” and adding, “We have a case here.”
Late last year, sources said, detectives tracked down Lucia Evans, who had told The New Yorker that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004.
During a January meeting at the DA’s Office, Rosenthal alienated Evans by referring to her as one of “Harvey’s girls,” according to a source present at the time.
The incident prompted Boyce to write to Vance, demanding Rosenthal be removed, according to a source who saw the correspondence.
Sources said the meeting factored into Vance’s April move to replace Rosenthal with Joan Illuzzi-Orbon.
That decision echoed Vance’s handling of the sex-assault case against then-IMF head Dominique StraussKahn.
In 2011, Lisa Friel, then head of the DA’s Sex Crimes Unit, was booted from the case for questioning inconsistencies in a hotel maid’s allegations against DSK, The Post reported at the time.
Vance spokesman Danny Frost wouldn’t say why Rosenthal was replaced, but called her “talented and experienced.”
Weinstein’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, called Rosenthal “one of the most experienced and honest sex crimes prosecutors in that office.”
“If they had kept her on the case, maybe there would not be a case today, and certainly not a case that appears to be riddled with police misconduct and perjury,” he added.