Alan Dershowitz Fights Back Against Allegations Of Sexual Relations With A Minor
What do you make of these shocking allegations against a distinguished lawyer and law professor?
Last October, retired Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz joined several of his Harvard Law School colleagues in signing a statement criticizing Harvard’s new university-wide policy for dealing with claims of sexual misconduct. Today, Professor Dershowitz finds himself in the unpleasant position of having to refute charges that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor.
Here’s a report from the Wall Street Journal (via Morning Docket):
Attorney Alan Dershowitz is swinging back at what he describes as fabricated claims, alleged in a U.S. court document, that he was involved in a prostitution ring connected to the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal. The claims against one of the most recognizable names in American law surfaced this week in a lawsuit over a deal that U.S. prosecutors struck with Mr. Epstein, a U.S. financier and former client of Mr. Dershowitz’s.
Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a state felony charge of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor. He was released from jail in 2009 after serving about 13 months behind bars.
Mr. Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, helped negotiate an agreement with the federal government, which had been investigating Mr. Epstein. By agreeing to plead guilty to the state charge, Mr. Epstein avoided federal prosecution.
The separate civil lawsuit, now in discovery phase, alleges that federal prosecutors violated the rights of Mr. Epstein’s alleged victims by negotiating and entering into that deal with him without consulting them.
The allegations against Mr. Dershowitz appeared in a Dec. 30 motion filed by the plaintiffs asking the court to allow two additional alleged victims — Jane Doe #3 and Jane Doe # 4 — to join the lawsuit.
The motion was filed by Florida lawyer Bradley J. Edwards and his co-counsel, University of Utah criminal law professor Paul Cassell, a former federal judge.
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The involvement of Professor Cassell, a prominent and highly regarded law professor and former federal judge, is one of the most surprising aspects of this case. Without his participation, the allegation that “Epstein required Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations with Dershowitz on numerous occasions while she was a minor, not only in Florida but also on private planes, in New York, New Mexico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands” — combined with similar claims against Prince Andrew, the 54-year-old son of Queen Elizabeth II and the younger brother of Prince Charles — might have been dismissed as completely fanciful.
Still, even with Professor Cassell on the scene, the claims are being received skeptically in some quarters. As Dershowitz’s fellow First Amendment lawyer Marc Randazza succinctly put it, “Alan Dershowitz’s Sex Orgies??? (I call bulls**t).”
As an expert in crisis management, based on representing such infamous figures as O.J. Simpson and Claus von Bülow, Alan Dershowitz knows that the best defense is a good offense. So he has proactively reached out to the media to forcefully deny the allegations, speaking with the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and the Harvard Crimson.
For Dershowitz’s defense of himself — which strikes me as persuasive, although I should offer the caveat that I haven’t heard the other side’s story — check out this draft declaration (posted in full on the next page; it’s a draft, so there are typos). He goes through in painstaking detail how he couldn’t possibly have had sexual relations with Jane Doe #3 at the times and places alleged. He even gets a bit “TMI” at points:
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As to Mr. Epstein’s homes in New York City and Palm Beach, I categorically state that I never had any sexual contact with anyone other than my wife in the Palm Beach home (my wife and family stayed in this home for a few days when Mr. Epstein was not there and no one but the housekeeper was there.)
People will pay good money to see Dershowitz’s lovely daughter in the nude, but I’m not sure we want to imagine the good professor, who’s now 76, boinking his wife in a Palm Beach mansion.
What do you make of the charges against Professor Dershowitz? Flip to the next page to read his complete declaration, then argue it out in the comments.
UPDATE (6:15 p.m.): For a somewhat different take on this case and the allegations being made by Virginia Roberts, see Tamara Tabo.
UPDATE (1/6/2015): You can access the final version of Dershowitz’s declaration via the WSJ Law Blog.
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