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'Fake Firefighter' Braunstein Seeks Leniency

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Jun 14, 2007 11:57 pm US/Eastern

'Fake Firefighter' Braunstein Seeks Leniency

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ― Peter Braunstein, who was convicted of kidnapping and sexually molesting a Manhattan woman, has sent the judge who will sentence him Monday a nine-page letter begging for leniency.

Braunstein faces up to 25 years to life in prison on the kidnapping charge.

The 43-year-old former fashion writer, dressed as a firefighter, set fires in the hall outside the woman's Manhattan apartment, bluffed his way into her home on Halloween night, 2005. He drugged her, tied her to a bed, stripped her and videotaped her.

Defense lawyer Robert Gottlieb argued at trial that Braunstein was too mentally ill to be held criminally responsible. But a Manhattan jury convicted Braunstein in May.

Braunstein, now in the psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital, said in his letter that he planned the crime, but at the same time said he's mentally ill.

His letter, which was submitted to the court today, asked the judge to send him to a state hospital, rather than a state prison, so he could receive psychiatric treatment.

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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