le go garçon 84
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this is SO shocking and scary at the same time, that shows that there are really scary people out there
Peter Braunstein Trial - assault on former W mag editor
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...mellowdrama
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^Thank Justice for that. In the Anna Wintour thread, it wasn't clear if he'd been imprisoned or not.
SomethingElse
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Local testifies in bizarre NYC case
I wonder how many more charges will be lodged against this crazy rabbit.
An Ohio psychologist testified Friday that a fashion writer accused of sexually abusing a co-worker while dressed as a firefighter had robbed him at gunpoint while on the run.
Mark William Cohen, a clinical psychologist who works in Cincinnati, said Peter Braunstein came to his office on Nov. 17, 2005 _ a month after the woman was attacked _ and spent almost an hour in the waiting area before tying him up and taking his wallet.
Cohen, testifying at Braunstein's kidnapping and sex abuse trial in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, said the defendant showed up at his office around 5 p.m. with an associate's card. He told Braunstein to have a seat and wait.
About an hour later, after he had seen a patient, Cohen told Braunstein that perhaps he should give the colleague he was waiting for a call. He said he walked back to his office with Braunstein following him.
"He was behind me," Cohen testified. "He came in and closed the door. Then he pointed a gun at my face and said, 'Doc, this is a robbery.' I had an attack of anxiety. It was pretty extreme."
Cohen said he exclaimed, "Oh my God!" and he put his hands in front of his face and fell back onto a sofa. He said Braunstein _ calm, matter-of-fact and showing no sign of emotion _ pointed the black automatic directly at his face.
Dr. William Barr, a psychologist at Bellevue Hospital, testified later Friday that Braunstein told him in an interview that he had a plan to disappear into the Midwest and survive by robbing people, specifically men.
Cohen, who identified Braunstein in court as the robber, testified that Braunstein told him: "I don't want to kill you. Give me your wallet." Cohen said the wallet held two credit cards, two teller machine cards, driver's license and about $45 in cash.
"He told me to lie on the floor face-down, which I did," Cohen said. "He tied my hands with something I think they call flex cuffs. He tied my ankles with duct tape. He asked for my PIN number and then he put duct tape over my mouth."
"He said, 'This is for your protection, not mine,"' Cohen quoted Braunstein as saying. "'Give me 15 minutes before you make any attempt to get up."'
Cohen was freed by another building tenant who heard his screams. He said the bandit had withdrawn $200 from his bank account within 15 minutes of leaving his office.
Braunstein, 43, is accused of igniting smoke bombs while wearing firefighter gear and tricking his way into a former co-worker's apartment, where he knocked her out with chloroform, tied her to a bed and sexually abused her for nearly 13 hours on Halloween night 2005.
Braunstein has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, burglary, sex abuse and robbery charges, although his lawyers concede he attacked the woman. They say their client, who would face 25 years to life in prison if convicted, is mentally ill and not criminally responsible for the attack.
As expected, defense and prosecution mental health professionals have disagreed in testimony about whether Braunstein was too mentally ill to be held criminally responsible for the Halloween night attack.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--fakefirefighter0518may18,0,1620201.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
I wonder how many more charges will be lodged against this crazy rabbit.
An Ohio psychologist testified Friday that a fashion writer accused of sexually abusing a co-worker while dressed as a firefighter had robbed him at gunpoint while on the run.
Mark William Cohen, a clinical psychologist who works in Cincinnati, said Peter Braunstein came to his office on Nov. 17, 2005 _ a month after the woman was attacked _ and spent almost an hour in the waiting area before tying him up and taking his wallet.
Cohen, testifying at Braunstein's kidnapping and sex abuse trial in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, said the defendant showed up at his office around 5 p.m. with an associate's card. He told Braunstein to have a seat and wait.
About an hour later, after he had seen a patient, Cohen told Braunstein that perhaps he should give the colleague he was waiting for a call. He said he walked back to his office with Braunstein following him.
"He was behind me," Cohen testified. "He came in and closed the door. Then he pointed a gun at my face and said, 'Doc, this is a robbery.' I had an attack of anxiety. It was pretty extreme."
Cohen said he exclaimed, "Oh my God!" and he put his hands in front of his face and fell back onto a sofa. He said Braunstein _ calm, matter-of-fact and showing no sign of emotion _ pointed the black automatic directly at his face.
Dr. William Barr, a psychologist at Bellevue Hospital, testified later Friday that Braunstein told him in an interview that he had a plan to disappear into the Midwest and survive by robbing people, specifically men.
Cohen, who identified Braunstein in court as the robber, testified that Braunstein told him: "I don't want to kill you. Give me your wallet." Cohen said the wallet held two credit cards, two teller machine cards, driver's license and about $45 in cash.
"He told me to lie on the floor face-down, which I did," Cohen said. "He tied my hands with something I think they call flex cuffs. He tied my ankles with duct tape. He asked for my PIN number and then he put duct tape over my mouth."
"He said, 'This is for your protection, not mine,"' Cohen quoted Braunstein as saying. "'Give me 15 minutes before you make any attempt to get up."'
Cohen was freed by another building tenant who heard his screams. He said the bandit had withdrawn $200 from his bank account within 15 minutes of leaving his office.
Braunstein, 43, is accused of igniting smoke bombs while wearing firefighter gear and tricking his way into a former co-worker's apartment, where he knocked her out with chloroform, tied her to a bed and sexually abused her for nearly 13 hours on Halloween night 2005.
Braunstein has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, burglary, sex abuse and robbery charges, although his lawyers concede he attacked the woman. They say their client, who would face 25 years to life in prison if convicted, is mentally ill and not criminally responsible for the attack.
As expected, defense and prosecution mental health professionals have disagreed in testimony about whether Braunstein was too mentally ill to be held criminally responsible for the Halloween night attack.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--fakefirefighter0518may18,0,1620201.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
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SomethingElse
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Attack Not Disputed at Trial, Just Intent of the Attacker
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/nyregion/23fake.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin
The prosecution and the defense offered contradictory versions yesterday of why — but not whether — a former fashion writer had dressed as a firefighter, tied up a woman he barely knew and sexually molested her in her Chelsea apartment on the night of Oct. 31, 2005.
In most criminal cases it is the “what” that matters, and the arguments center on evidence, whether circumstantial or concrete, from fingerprints to telephone records, that a defendant did what he is accused of doing.
But in the case of Peter Braunstein, both sides acknowledged in their closing arguments yesterday, there was little dispute about what he did. Rather, the central question, as framed by the defense, was almost metaphysical by comparison.
The question, both sides agreed, was whether he intended to commit acts of kidnapping, sexual abuse, arson, burglary and robbery. If convicted of kidnapping, the most serious charge, he faces up to life in prison.
Robert Gottlieb, Mr. Braunstein’s lead lawyer, told the jury in State Supreme Court in Manhattan that testimony about Mr. Braunstein’s mental state going back two decades to his college years showed that he had gone through a “progressive” mental deterioration.
Because of this mental deterioration, Mr. Gottlieb said, Mr. Braunstein, 43, should be acquitted, not because he was mentally ill, but because he was unable to form the “conscious objective” — otherwise known as intent — needed to prove that a crime was committed. Mr. Gottlieb said that Mr. Braunstein attacked the woman, a former editor for W magazine, in a vague, improvisational haze, a kind of fantasy, never knowing what he was going to do from one moment to the next.
“One fact, one undeniable truth has become clear during this trial, and that is that Peter Braunstein was very ill,” Mr. Gottlieb told the jury. “He was very, very sick on Halloween of 2005.”
Mr. Gottlieb argued in his summation that it did not even matter what type of mental illness Mr. Braunstein had, whether it was paranoid schizophrenia, as the defense has contended during the three-week trial, or borderline personality disorder, as the prosecution’s chief psychiatric witness testified.
“Call it an orange, call it a banana,” Mr. Gottlieb said.
All that mattered, he said, was that whatever illness it was, it interfered with Mr. Braunstein’s ability to form intent, and therefore he could not be convicted.
In her summation, Maxine Rosenthal, the lead prosecutor, argued that it did not matter whether Mr. Braunstein knew what he was going to do next before he did it. Intent, she said, could be formed in the same instant he was acting.
She reviewed the agonized testimony of the victim in painstaking detail: how Mr. Braunstein drugged her with chloroform, tied her to her bed, put high heels on her feet, snipped off her underwear, fed her cough medicine to “relax” her and fondled her while operating a video camera. Then, she said, he wore latex gloves to clean up everything, leaving almost nothing behind but a message on the bathroom mirror.
“He came prepared,” she said. “He brought the rope, the tape, the gun, the knife, the chloroform, the video camera, the gloves and the cough medicine.”
But the jury, Ms. Rosenthal said, did not have to find that he had a plan. “You are only being asked to decide at the moment he engaged in the conduct, was that his conscious objective,” she said.
Ms. Rosenthal reiterated the prosecution’s theme that Mr. Braunstein attacked the woman as a surrogate for his former girlfriend, Jane Larkworthy, and for the fashion industry and everyone else who had ever rejected or humiliated him. He could not attack Ms. Larkworthy directly, she said, because she had an order of protection against him, and besides, he had “been there, done that.”
He was angry at the fashion industry because he had been fired from his job at Women’s Wear Daily in 2002 for demanding a ticket for Ms. Larkworthy to accompany him to the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards.
“He was better than them, more intellectual, more profound,” Ms. Rosenthal said. “He was angry. More than angry, he was furious.”
But even if he was mentally ill, she told the jury, that did not mean he could not form the intent to commit a crime. “Surely the prisons are not filled with undiagnosed schizophrenics who cannot form intent,” Ms. Rosenthal said.
The jury was expected to begin deliberating today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/nyregion/23fake.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin
The prosecution and the defense offered contradictory versions yesterday of why — but not whether — a former fashion writer had dressed as a firefighter, tied up a woman he barely knew and sexually molested her in her Chelsea apartment on the night of Oct. 31, 2005.
In most criminal cases it is the “what” that matters, and the arguments center on evidence, whether circumstantial or concrete, from fingerprints to telephone records, that a defendant did what he is accused of doing.
But in the case of Peter Braunstein, both sides acknowledged in their closing arguments yesterday, there was little dispute about what he did. Rather, the central question, as framed by the defense, was almost metaphysical by comparison.
The question, both sides agreed, was whether he intended to commit acts of kidnapping, sexual abuse, arson, burglary and robbery. If convicted of kidnapping, the most serious charge, he faces up to life in prison.
Robert Gottlieb, Mr. Braunstein’s lead lawyer, told the jury in State Supreme Court in Manhattan that testimony about Mr. Braunstein’s mental state going back two decades to his college years showed that he had gone through a “progressive” mental deterioration.
Because of this mental deterioration, Mr. Gottlieb said, Mr. Braunstein, 43, should be acquitted, not because he was mentally ill, but because he was unable to form the “conscious objective” — otherwise known as intent — needed to prove that a crime was committed. Mr. Gottlieb said that Mr. Braunstein attacked the woman, a former editor for W magazine, in a vague, improvisational haze, a kind of fantasy, never knowing what he was going to do from one moment to the next.
“One fact, one undeniable truth has become clear during this trial, and that is that Peter Braunstein was very ill,” Mr. Gottlieb told the jury. “He was very, very sick on Halloween of 2005.”
Mr. Gottlieb argued in his summation that it did not even matter what type of mental illness Mr. Braunstein had, whether it was paranoid schizophrenia, as the defense has contended during the three-week trial, or borderline personality disorder, as the prosecution’s chief psychiatric witness testified.
“Call it an orange, call it a banana,” Mr. Gottlieb said.
All that mattered, he said, was that whatever illness it was, it interfered with Mr. Braunstein’s ability to form intent, and therefore he could not be convicted.
In her summation, Maxine Rosenthal, the lead prosecutor, argued that it did not matter whether Mr. Braunstein knew what he was going to do next before he did it. Intent, she said, could be formed in the same instant he was acting.
She reviewed the agonized testimony of the victim in painstaking detail: how Mr. Braunstein drugged her with chloroform, tied her to her bed, put high heels on her feet, snipped off her underwear, fed her cough medicine to “relax” her and fondled her while operating a video camera. Then, she said, he wore latex gloves to clean up everything, leaving almost nothing behind but a message on the bathroom mirror.
“He came prepared,” she said. “He brought the rope, the tape, the gun, the knife, the chloroform, the video camera, the gloves and the cough medicine.”
But the jury, Ms. Rosenthal said, did not have to find that he had a plan. “You are only being asked to decide at the moment he engaged in the conduct, was that his conscious objective,” she said.
Ms. Rosenthal reiterated the prosecution’s theme that Mr. Braunstein attacked the woman as a surrogate for his former girlfriend, Jane Larkworthy, and for the fashion industry and everyone else who had ever rejected or humiliated him. He could not attack Ms. Larkworthy directly, she said, because she had an order of protection against him, and besides, he had “been there, done that.”
He was angry at the fashion industry because he had been fired from his job at Women’s Wear Daily in 2002 for demanding a ticket for Ms. Larkworthy to accompany him to the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards.
“He was better than them, more intellectual, more profound,” Ms. Rosenthal said. “He was angry. More than angry, he was furious.”
But even if he was mentally ill, she told the jury, that did not mean he could not form the intent to commit a crime. “Surely the prisons are not filled with undiagnosed schizophrenics who cannot form intent,” Ms. Rosenthal said.
The jury was expected to begin deliberating today.
le go garçon 84
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even though i know he is a sick man, and he is really dangerous i found this quite funny:
May 15, 2007 -- Fire fiend Peter Braunstein planned to murder Vogue editrix Anna Wintour - deriding the fashion icon as an egotistical "skank" who never returned his phone calls.
May 15, 2007 -- Fire fiend Peter Braunstein planned to murder Vogue editrix Anna Wintour - deriding the fashion icon as an egotistical "skank" who never returned his phone calls.
mellowdrama
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Perhaps he had an entirely different intent for those items, like an elaborate Rube Goldberg mousetrap for particularly vicious, citified rodents with colds.
jennifer~
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Now I know to always return calls from psychopaths, and definitely leave a contact number, with directions to my house and instructions for finding the spare key, to ward off any hostility...
PrinceOfCats
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Quelledrag.
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SomethingElse
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Peter Braunstein Found Guilty In Sexual Assault Case
May 23, 2007
After deliberating for less than four hours Wednesday, a State Supreme Court jury found Peter Braunstein guilty of sexually assaulting a former co-worker in her Chelsea apartment in 2005.
The jury convicted Braunstein on ten counts of sexual abuse, robbery, kidnapping, and burglary. He was acquitted only on the arson charge.
Prosecutors say Braunstein disguised himself as a firefighter and set several small fires to gain entrance into a former colleague at Fairchild Publication's apartment, where he then allegedly knocked her out with chloroform and sexually assaulted her for 13 hours.
Braunstein, who was heavily drugged during the trial, did not seem to have any reaction to the verdict.
"The reality is, and people should understand that, the law has never understood how to deal with people who do horrific acts and who are also mentally ill,” said defense attorney Robert Gottlieb. "He's sick and the fact that he's convicted doesn't change the fact that Peter Braunstein is mentally ill and his reaction, his response, is all within that framework."
"I mean I'm terribly disappointed,” said Alberto Braunstein, Braunstein’s father. “I thought mental illness would finally be recognized in this country, but it hasn't, so what can I say."
The defense gave two hours' worth of closing arguments Tuesday, telling jurors that Braunstein is a paranoid schizophrenic and was so mentally ill, he didn't have the mental capacity to plan and execute the attack.
Braunstein admitted to the attack, but the question has always been whether or not he was too delusional for the attack to be pre-meditated. The prosecution argues that Braunstein was clever and methodical in planning the attack.
Braunstein will be held at Bellevue Hospital until he's sentenced on June 18th.
The defendant's attorney says he will appeal the ruling.
Braunstein faces up to 25 years to life in prison. His attorney says regardless of his mental state, he'll likely serve that sentence at a prison upstate as part of the general population.
ny1.com
Image Source: Resident Publications - 70.47.124.114
May 23, 2007After deliberating for less than four hours Wednesday, a State Supreme Court jury found Peter Braunstein guilty of sexually assaulting a former co-worker in her Chelsea apartment in 2005.
The jury convicted Braunstein on ten counts of sexual abuse, robbery, kidnapping, and burglary. He was acquitted only on the arson charge.
Prosecutors say Braunstein disguised himself as a firefighter and set several small fires to gain entrance into a former colleague at Fairchild Publication's apartment, where he then allegedly knocked her out with chloroform and sexually assaulted her for 13 hours.
Braunstein, who was heavily drugged during the trial, did not seem to have any reaction to the verdict.
"The reality is, and people should understand that, the law has never understood how to deal with people who do horrific acts and who are also mentally ill,” said defense attorney Robert Gottlieb. "He's sick and the fact that he's convicted doesn't change the fact that Peter Braunstein is mentally ill and his reaction, his response, is all within that framework."
"I mean I'm terribly disappointed,” said Alberto Braunstein, Braunstein’s father. “I thought mental illness would finally be recognized in this country, but it hasn't, so what can I say."
The defense gave two hours' worth of closing arguments Tuesday, telling jurors that Braunstein is a paranoid schizophrenic and was so mentally ill, he didn't have the mental capacity to plan and execute the attack.
Braunstein admitted to the attack, but the question has always been whether or not he was too delusional for the attack to be pre-meditated. The prosecution argues that Braunstein was clever and methodical in planning the attack.
Braunstein will be held at Bellevue Hospital until he's sentenced on June 18th.
The defendant's attorney says he will appeal the ruling.
Braunstein faces up to 25 years to life in prison. His attorney says regardless of his mental state, he'll likely serve that sentence at a prison upstate as part of the general population.
ny1.com
Image Source: Resident Publications - 70.47.124.114
SomethingElse
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You can vote anonymously whether you think the guilty verdict is fair or not: http://www.ny1.com/ny1/Polls/index.jsp?pollactivequestionintid=2754
Miss Dalloway
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I just read this and wow,thats all i can say.I am glad they stoped him and hopefully he will be locked for good.
farren fashion
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eh. i have no comment on this one. just. insane.
SomethingElse
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A 2/24/07 podcast raising interesting issues about the insanity defense including an interview with the lawyer who represented Braunstein: http://podcast.wor710.com/wor/482799.mp3
softgrey
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somethingelse- you seem a little obsessed with this case...
...
i am changing the titel back becuase the thread and the trial are NOT about any anna wintour nonsense...
that was just a tiny little blip in the grand scheme of the case against this lunatic...
so glad it's over...having to hear about it everyday was very unsettling...
i heard that the victim sold the rights to her story so expect some sort of book or movie eventually...
better would be a story from his perspective...
about how he got to the point of hating the fashion industry so much that he would take out all his hatred for it on one person who symbolised it for him...and what it was that made him choose that particular victim for his revenge...
freaking nut bag!...
...i am changing the titel back becuase the thread and the trial are NOT about any anna wintour nonsense...
that was just a tiny little blip in the grand scheme of the case against this lunatic...
so glad it's over...having to hear about it everyday was very unsettling...
i heard that the victim sold the rights to her story so expect some sort of book or movie eventually...
better would be a story from his perspective...
about how he got to the point of hating the fashion industry so much that he would take out all his hatred for it on one person who symbolised it for him...and what it was that made him choose that particular victim for his revenge...
freaking nut bag!...
SomethingElse
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It's true that this case has been a hotly debated subject in my circle since we know some of the families of people involved, and I am glad will be over when the sentence is handed down. I had named the thread "Peter Braunstein - Assault Trial" originally so I don't know how the tltle of the thread changed.
I'm letting the thread of this dreadful balloon go now. Sorry I've been a bit obsessive.
I'm letting the thread of this dreadful balloon go now. Sorry I've been a bit obsessive.
softgrey
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yes- it was hard to avoid it if you live in manhattan since it is big news here...
and many of us in the industry know the parties involved so it just makes it even more uncomfortable-if you know what i mean...
i'm just really glad it's over too!...
and many of us in the industry know the parties involved so it just makes it even more uncomfortable-if you know what i mean...
i'm just really glad it's over too!...
