A woman who says she was abused by a perverted Columbia University gynecologist is refuting Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s claim that a prosecutor made a mistake by requesting a lower sex offender status for Jeffrey Epstein.
Marissa Hoechstetter says the controversial plea deal for the deranged doctor who allegedly abused her on the exam table, Robert Hadden, followed a pattern set by Epstein five years prior.
In the Epstein case, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Gaffney stunned a judge in 2011 by requesting that the multimillionaire perv be designated a “Level 1” sex offender because he had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from one minor victim — though he’d faced accusations from many more women.
Vance’s office has tried to explain the highly unusual request by saying that Gaffney made a mistake analyzing relevant legal standards.
But in 2016 Gaffney — who remained deputy chief of the sex crimes unit — was part of a team of prosecutors that consented to a Level 1 sex offender status for Hadden. Around 20 victims had accused Hadden of vile abuse during examinations.
“What happened to us is proof that they not only knew what they were doing but that they approved that behavior,” Hoechstetter told the Daily News.
“It’s not a mistake. It’s an MO.”
During a Monday bail hearing for Epstein in Manhattan Federal Court, Judge Richard Berman revived questions about Vance’s handling of the multimillionaire perv’s sex offender status. He noted that the state judge who presided over the sex offender hearing, Justice Ruth Pickholz, “said a few things that are pretty unusual for a judge to say.”
“I must say it’s — I don’t know what the word is I’m looking for, but you’ll read (the transcript) yourself,” Berman said. “(Pickholz) was taken aback I have to say, really taken aback.”
Hoechstetter saw other parallels between the Hadden and Epstein cases as well. A federal judge ruled earlier this year that then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta violated the law by not notifying Epstein accusers of his guilty plea in 2008. Acosta resigned as President Trump’s Labor Secretary on Friday, two days after arguing that the non-prosecution agreement with Epstein was necessary because a conviction was not guaranteed.
Hadden’s accusers — including one of the victims he admitted to abusing — told The News in 2017 they’d been kept in the dark about the gynecologist’s guilty plea to one felony count of a criminal sex act with a minor and one count of forcible touching, a misdemeanor, which included no jail time.
Vance’s office has defended the plea deal, saying a conviction at trial was not guaranteed.
“The same thing happened here that happened with Epstein,” said attorney Anthony DiPietro, who represents 26 Hadden accusers. “The DA didn’t inform all the victims a plea deal was entered.”
He believed that if more of Hadden’s alleged victims had been in the courtroom during the guilty plea, the judge would not have imposed the Level 1 sex offender status.
DA spokesman Danny Frost said that Vance was not aware of the controversial Epstein hearing until the office corrected its legal error on appeal.
Gaffney, who retired as deputy chief of the sex crimes unit last year, could not be reached. Hadden could not be reached. An email to his attorney was not returned.
With Shayna Jacobs
