NFL players and union representatives should take note of the fact that Lisa Friel, former Manhattan DA and now hired to serve on an NFL advisory panel of four women, was involved in a prosecution of New York policeman Kenneth Moreno that resulted in a mistrial and Friel being fired for prosecutorial misconduct. Friel is known for her aggressive and sometimes unconstitutional prosecutions of men.
According to a lawyer hired by Mr. Moreno, Friel went after the cop despite lack of any physical evidence:
NEW YORK, July 31, 2014 – New York Civil Rights Attorney Eric Sanders, Esq., of The Sanders Firm, P.C., files a $175 Million dollar lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Kenneth J. Moreno against the accuser, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Home Box Office, Inc., and the accuser’s law firm for conspiracy to violate his constitutional rights for their pecuniary gain.
Mr. Moreno was a tenured civil servant close to his 20th year anniversary when he would have been eligible for full retirement benefits.
Mr. Moreno alleges the New York County District Attorney’s Office under Robert Morgenthal and Cyrus Vance investigates, prosecutes and makes other charging decisions based upon race, political affiliations and other improper factors designed to ensure their own pecuniary gain. In the verified complaint, Mr. Moreno notes differences in how his case was handled as opposed to Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Fox News Anchor Greg Kelly, both Caucasian males with privilege and political power.
The original callout alleging Mr. Moreno raped Ms. Katherine Chow was assigned to Detective Second Grade Diane L. Davis for the initial part of the investigation. After interviewing Ms. Chow, Detective Davis found her not credible. In Detective Davis’s opinion, she believed this matter was not criminal but a form of misconduct based upon similar matters handled by the NYPD.
Ms. Chow alleged Mr. Moreno raised her pelvic area and had vaginal sex with her from behind. Mr. Moreno denies having any sex with Ms. Chow. There was no physical evidence to support Ms. Chow had sex with Mr. Moreno. On Ms. Chow’s Facebook personal page, she messaged her friend but says nothing about allegedly being raped until she meets with her friend attorney Ms. Yasmine R. Saeed. They begin meeting with the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau and the New York County District Attorney’s Office.
Prior to the criminal trial, Ms. Chow maliciously filed several frivolous federal civil rights lawsuits in the Southern District of New York alleging Mr. Moreno raped and assaulted her in an attempt to extort monies out of him and the taxpayers, according to the verified complaint.
Prior to the criminal trial, the New York County District Attorneys’ Office obtained a search warrant and seized a hair sample from him, which yielded no credible evidence to support any criminal charge.
Even worse, she has allegedly gone from being an unethical prosecutor to being paid to cover up sexual abuse of men and boys:
The lawyers hired by Yeshiva University in January 2013 to investigate allegations that the Washington Heights school had covered up decades of sexual abuse didn’t leave any stone unturned.
The investigators spent 6,300 hours on the case, interviewing more than 145 people, including victims and school employees accused of sexual abuse. They reviewed millions of emails and thousands of pages of documents, including personnel records, legal files and board meeting minutes.
The investigation was led by Karen Patton Seymour, the former chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, now a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, the Manhattan white-shoe law firm with offices across the globe. Seymour and S&C brought in Lisa Friel and her security firm, T&M Protection Resources, to assist with the probe.
Friel assumed an even bigger stage on Monday, when embattled NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced that he had hired the former chief of the Manhattan district attorney’s sex crimes unit to advise him on criminal cases and violations of the league’s personal conduct policy.
The T&M vice president, one of four women Goodell said will help guide the NFL through the worst crisis in its 94-year history, is already reviewing the cases against Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings star who was indicted last week on felony child abuse charges, and Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers, who is appealing his domestic violence conviction.
But if the Yeshiva case — where Friel’s work and independence have come into question — is any indication, transparency and victims’ concerns may take a backseat to NFL public relations. The lawyer representing 34 men who claim Yeshiva officials covered up the sex abuse allegations says the university used Friel and her investigators as “unwitting cogs” in an ongoing conspiracy to conceal the abuse. It was an effort, he says, to allay alumni anger and public outrage — and shield the Orthodox Jewish university from any liability.
Good going Goodell! Hopefully you’ll be smart enough to pay Friel NOT to do anything in her position as NFL feminist PR woman in chief.