Famed trial lawyer Sanford Rubenstein files defamation suit over rape claim
Civil rights lawyer Sanford Rubenstein has filed a countersuit for defamation against a woman who has accused him of rape.
The countersuit, filed Monday in Brooklyn Supreme Court, claims the woman’s accusations have subjected Rubenstein to “extensive humiliation and vilification,” the New York Daily News, the New York Post and others report.
Rubenstein, 70, was sued last month by an official in the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, who alleged that Rubenstein raped her in his Upper East Side home following Sharpton’s 60th birthday party last October.
Rubenstein doesn’t dispute having sex with the woman, but maintains that it was consensual.
Last month, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office announced that no criminal charges would be filed against Rubenstein.
In her suit, the woman alleges that she awoke in Rubenstein’s bed after a night of heavy drinking to him assaulting her. She also alleges that Rubenstein may have fed her cookies laced with marijuana.
Benjamin Brafman, Rubenstein’s lawyer, said in a statement that the counterclaim is about principle, not money.
“You cannot continue to defame a person in the hope of securing a cash settlement for a claim that has already been proven false,” he said.
Keith White, one of the woman’s lawyers, told the Daily News he was expecting the counterclaim “in an attempt to further marginalize and embarrass the victim and sway the court of public opinion.”
“But we are focused on the next progressive steps in litigating this matter so that the truth of what occurred between our client and Sanford Rubenstein is determined and adjudicated by a court of law,” he added.
Rubenstein may best be known for representing police torture victim Abner Louima. He also briefly represented the family of Eric Garner, who died during a confrontation with police on Staten Island last summer, until the rape accusations forced him to take himself off the case.
