Cyrus Vance Covering for Weinstein but Blames Cop
Harvey Weinstein and How an Overzealous NYPD Detective Could Undermine the Entire Case
6:15 AM PDT 4/9/2019 by
Nicholas DiGaudio built a career fighting for victims of sexual assault, but in his eagerness to bring justice to the disgraced movie mogul, he may have crossed a line that could boost the defense's strategy: "All they have up their sleeve is to attack him."
Early one morning last May, Detective Nicholas DiGaudio arrived at work in lower Manhattan for one of the most important days of his career. With close-cropped hair and a burly frame, wearing a paisley tie and his New York Police Department badge clipped to the lapel of his navy blazer, DiGaudio escorted Harvey Weinstein into the NYPD's First Precinct to be fingerprinted, photographed and booked.
After years of seeming untouchable in New York and Hollywood, Weinstein would face sexual assault charges in a case that may be the most significant of the #MeToo era. And it was DiGaudio, 46, together with Sgt. Keri Thompson, who had assembled the case against the disgraced film executive.
In the months since that day, DiGaudio's role has come under scrutiny, and it seems that when the trial begins June 3, his behavior as an investigator may play a key part in Weinstein's defense. A detective known among sexual assault victims to be an especially sensitive interrogator, DiGaudio, in his zeal to put Weinstein behind bars, may have actually hurt the case. Prosecutors have disclosed that DiGaudio withheld evidence favorable to Weinstein, leading the judge to dismiss part of the indictment, and that he instructed one of the women in the case not to turn over evidence.
DiGaudio's defenders say he is the fall guy for problems that stem from the long-standing dysfunctional relationship between the Manhattan District Attorney's office and the NYPD. "We're dealing with a case with no physical evidence," says retired NYPD detective Sgt. Joseph Giacalone. "The defense can't go after the victims because they'll look like heels. So they go after the detective. Unfortunately [by withholding evidence], he gave them the opportunity. You wouldn't want to be this guy. All they have up their sleeve is to attack him."
DiGaudio has worked for the NYPD for more than two decades and raised two children in a bedroom community north of New York City. He drives a crossover SUV, roots for the Yankees and lays low online except for the rare tweet complaining about JetBlue. He did not return multiple calls for comment for this story, but spoke to me on the record in late 2017, when he was growing agitated with the pace of the DA's movement on the Weinstein case. In a conversation about one of Weinstein's accusers whom we had both interviewed, and whose case DiGaudio hoped the DA would take, he spoke in the blunt manner of a seasoned cop. "Do you believe her?" DiGaudio asked. "I do," I told him. "I do, too," DiGaudio said. (The DA did not take that woman's case.)
The NYPD's frustrated history with Weinstein and District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. dates back to a 2015 sting operation involving Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, which one source who worked on the case calls "the beginning of the war." After Gutierrez told police that Weinstein lunged at her and grabbed her breasts while reviewing her modeling portfolio in his Tribeca office, investigators persuaded her to wear a wire to a meeting with him, at which he apologized for groping her. Weinstein was represented in that case by two attorneys who had made campaign contributions to Vance, and when the DA's office declined to prosecute, the police who worked the case were livid. "We went above and beyond what we needed to do," says the source who worked on the case. "The DA's office will never publicly they messed up, but they messed up."
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/harvey-weinstein-how-an-overzealous-detective-could-undermine-case-1200268