Apr 28, 2007 3:00 pm US/Eastern
Sexual Assault Trial Set For Alleged Fake Fireman
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
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Peter Braunstein's lawyer says he is not fit to stand trial because of injuries suffered while behind bars.
CBS
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Peter Braunstein is scheduled to go to trial on a multitude of charges stemming from an attack on Oct. 31, 2005. (File photo)
CBS
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On Halloween 2005, prosecutors say, Peter Braunstein was dressed in full firefighting regalia—but his outfit had nothing to do with the holiday.
Instead, the 43-year-old writer used the get-up as a ruse to enter the Manhattan apartment of a former co-worker who was then stripped, bound with duct tape and sexually abused for 13 hours, according to prosecutors. On Monday, opening statements were expected in the bizarre case that spawned a plethora of tabloid headlines.
The jury was seated over four days last week after state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber made two key rulings in the case.
First, he barred most of the statements Braunstein made to police after his arrest on a Tennessee college campus.
But he did allow the prosecution to introduce journals found in Braunstein's backpack when he was taken into custody after six weeks on the run. Prosecutors say the journals present Braunstein as a calculating criminal who lied to his probation officer just a week before the attack.
In the case's latest strange twist, Braunstein's attorneys had claimed their client was physically unfit for trial due to three skull fractures. The trial was ordered to proceed on April 18 after prosecutors questioned the severity of his injuries, and reported that jail guards claimed the wounds were self-inflicted when Braunstein smashed his head into a cell sink.
Braunstein has pleaded not guilty to sexual abuse, arson, kidnapping, burglary, robbery and assault. Defense attorney Robert C. Gottlieb plans to argue that his client suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness on the night of the alleged attack, and was therefore not criminally liable.
Braunstein, dressed in his firefighter's garb, allegedly started two small fires outside the 34-year-old victim's apartment and then banged on her door to "rescue" her. When the woman answered, she later told police, the fireman pulled a handgun and covered her face with a chloroformed rag.
With real firefighters extinguishing the small fires outside, Braunstein allegedly bound and gagged the woman with duct tape before sexually molesting her for the next 13 hours. He left her behind in the apartment, then went on the lam for the next six weeks.
When he was finally cornered on the University of Memphis campus, Braunstein began stabbing himself in the neck with a double-edged dagger. Braunstein, a freelance journalist who once wrote for Women's Wear Daily, was subdued by police with pepper spray and arrested Dec. 16, 2005.
The judge warned prospective jurors the trial could last into June.
(© 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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