Central Park Five prosecutor Linda Fairstein has been intervening in criminal cases on behalf of her well-connected Martha’s Vineyard friends and offering her former DA office colleagues positive press coverage, it has been revealed.
A trove of never-before-seen emails between the former head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and her successor and good friend Martha Bashford were obtained by the Huffington Post through a public records request.
The 147 pages of emails, though heavily-redacted, show Fairstein weighing in on several cases involving New York’s elite long after she left her position in 2002.
One email from 2012 shows the famed prosecutor telling Bashford she had received a call from ‘one of my vineyard best friends’ who was the ‘lovely godfather’ of disgraced doctor Adam Levinson.
Fairstein writes that she ‘promised’ to ‘talk’ to an individual about the case to help the well-connected urologist who was caught using a hidden camera to film up women’s skirts in a subway station.
The revelations come after it previously emerged Fairstein had introduced Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer Elkan Abramowitz to Bashford back in 2015 when the convicted rapist was accused of sexually assaulting model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez.
Bashford ultimately decided not to bring charges against Weinstein and it would be several more years before he was finally convicted of rape and sexual assault of two other women as the media mogul’s reputation unraveled through the MeToo movement.
It is not clear if Fairstein received any payments for helping her wealthy connections with their cases.
However some emails show Fairstein offering to use her influence among New York’s elite to ensure Bashford and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. are given positive press coverage.
Central Park Five prosecutor Linda Fairstein (above) has been intervening in criminal cases on behalf of her well-connected Martha’s Vineyard friends and offering her former DA office colleagues positive press coverage, it has been revealed
Cyrus Vance Jr., Martha Bashford, Mark Herzlich and Linda Fairstein in 2017. A trove of never-before-seen emails between the former head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and her successor and good friend Martha Bashford were obtained by the Huffington Post through a public records request
In one heavily-redacted email about Levinson on December 11 2012, Fairstein justifies her involvement due to the doctor’s connections to her Martha’s Vineyard social circle.
‘An fyi, I don’t know if [BLANK] used my name today, about [BLANK],’ she wrote.
‘Got a call last weekend from one of my vineyard best friends [BLANK] … At whose home I have apparently met [BLANK’S] very lovely godfather.
‘I promised nothing except that I would talk to [BLANK].’
Fairstein and Bashford discussed the case again in an email chain in 2013 where she said she had advised her contact ‘never again to tell anyone that he could swear that the guy would never do it again.’
‘I never heard from [BLANK] again after the day we saw you — and he called to thank me — and I told him never again to tell anyone that he could swear that the guy would never do it again. And [BLANK] was not a great test for recidivism on the subway,’ Fairstein wrote.
Bashford replied but the email was redacted.
The outlet said the duo appeared to be discussing a new twist in Levinson’s case, with Fairstein replying: ‘Takes my breath away … guess the ‘entirely my fault’ thing was a complete act!’
Levinson, who worked at the prestigious Mount Sinai hospital and was one of the city’s top doctors, was arrested in 2012 aged 39 after he was caught using a pen camera to take pictures up women’s skirts in Union Square station.
The doctor was using a folded newspaper with the pen clipped on its end to angle the camera up women’s skirts.
One email from 2012 shows the famed prosecutor telling Bashford she had received a call from ‘one of my vineyard best friends’ who was the ‘lovely godfather’ of disgraced doctor Adam Levinson
Fairstein and Bashford discussed the case again in an email chain in 2013 where she said she had advised her contact ‘never again to tell anyone that he could swear that the guy would never do it again’
He pleaded guilty to one charge of unlawful surveillance in 2014 and was given a no-jail sentence after the prosecution said he had shown ‘remorse.’
He did not have to register as a sex offender and was allowed to keep his medical license.
Fairstein defended her weighing in on this case telling the Huffington Post she does not believe she played a meaningful role in the leniency afforded Levinson.
She described the case as a ‘sad situation’ involving the godson of her friend ‘Mr C’ and said she wanted to get a ‘fair resolution on both sides’ including for the ‘doctor with a stunningly promising career.’
‘[Mr. C] told me about a sad situation involving his godson, a medical doctor with a stunningly promising career,’ Fairstein told HuffPost.
Adam Levinson was caught using a hidden camera to film up women’s skirts in a subway station
‘Because of the arrest, the medical board moves right away to retract the license, which is what this guy cared about, really.’
She added: ‘It’s a long time ago, I’m trying to think what my role was.
‘I guess to try to help negotiate a result, not me as a lawyer, but as a human, to help present a picture of what was at stake for this young man.
‘I was trying to talk through both sides, get a fair resolution on both sides.’
Fairstein admitted she accompanied Levinson’s attorney to a meeting with Bashford and another DA.
But she said she turned down an opportunity to represent Levinson herself.
Bashford told the Huffington Post Fairstein asked for ‘leniency’ in the case in the meeting but insisted her request ‘fell on deaf ears.’
‘Your characterization that she had an open door for input on cases is inaccurate,’ she said.
Fairstein’s involvement in the Weinstein case was already public knowledge, admitting previously that she contacted Bashford, setting up a meeting between Abramowitz and Bashford and giving testament to the attorney’s upstanding character.
The former sex crimes unit prosecutor mixed in the same circles as Weinstein, first meeting him during one of her jaunts to Martha’s Vineyard.
His accuser Gutierrez had worked with the NYPD to record audio of Weinstein admitting to groping her.
It previously emerged Fairstein had introduced Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer Elkan Abramowitz to Bashford back in 2015 when the convicted rapist was accused of sexually assaulting model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez. Pictured Weinstein arriving in Manhattan court in 2020
Bashford met with Weinstein’s lawyers three more times and dropped the case against the Hollywood filmmaker, determining Gutierrez was not a credible witness.
Bashford resigned from her role during Weinstein’s subsequent trial last year.
Fairstein addressed her involvement in this case to the Huffington Post saying she ‘wanted to speak to the character and credibility of Elkan’ and that the first meeting was set up with Vance’s blessing.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Fairstein for comment.
Fairstein told the Huffington Post her involvement in the cases was not meaningful and said she speaks with lots of former colleagues about ongoing cases.
‘I would never, never ask in the middle of an investigation, where was it going and what was happening,’ she said.
While prosecutors are advised to avoid personal bias, there are no rules banning prosecutors from being involved in cases where there may be conflict of interest.
However, the trove of emails provide a glimpse into how the upper echelon of New York society are using their criminal justice connections to get softer prosecution.
The DA’s office did not immediately return DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
A spokesperson told the Huffington Post: ‘Our prosecutors’ investigations and charging decisions are based on the facts and the law alone.’
Fairstein is best known for her involvement in the the Central Park Five case where five black and Latino teens were wrongly convicted of a brutal rape in Central Park.
Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Korey Wise, Raymond Santana and Yusef Salaam, who now go by the name ‘The Exonerated Five’, ranged in age from 14 to 16 when they were arrested in connection with the rape and brutal beating of female jogger, 28-year-old Trisha Meili, in 1989.
Fairstein is now suing the makers of the Netflix series on the case When They See Us for defamation over its depiction of her. The Central Park Five now and Ava DuVernay at the world premiere of the show
The teens all confessed after being interrogated by police for hours but later said they were coerced to admit to a crime they had not committed.
Fairstein was head of the New York District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Unit at the time.
They were all convicted and served between six and 13 years in prison.
In 2002, they were finally exonerated when another prison inmate confessed to the attack and DNA evidence proved he was the perpetrator.
The five sued New York City, scores of New York Police Department officers and detectives and three prosecutors including Fairstein.
It was settled in 2014 when the men received a $41 million settlement.
The case is now widely regarded as a symbol of institutional racism in America’s criminal justice system.
Fairstein is now suing the makers of the Netflix series on the case When They See Us for defamation over its depiction of her.
The show led to a renewed outcry over the case and her role in it and led to Fairstein being dropped by Dutton – the publisher of her bestselling crime novels.
