Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. appeared on FOX (FOXA) 5’s Good Day New York days before his office was investigating the show’s anchor Greg Kelly for allegedly raping a woman.
Mr. Vance appeared on the show Monday with Dan Reingold, president of the Hebrew Home in Riverdale, to talk about the growing problem of elder abuse.
But towards the end of the interview (4:21 in the video), Mr. Kelly changes the subject and asks Mr. Vance about his office’s failure to prosecute Dominique Strauss-Kahn (a.k.a. “DSK”) for allegedly sexually assaulting hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo inside The Sofitel Hotel.
“Fundamentally, Greg, it’s a prosecutor’s obligation, I believe, to put before a jury in a criminal case those cases where we are convinced as an office beyond a reasonable doubt that we are both able to prove the case and understand what happened,” said Mr. Vance.
“Our job as a prosecutor’s office is not to put points on the board,” he adds. “Our job as a prosecutor’s office is try to do right, to pursue every case to where it should end up appropriately, wherever that is.”
Mr. Kelly then asks:
“Ms. Diallo, was she treated fairly by your office? Newsweek had a story and it seemed like she was undergoing a great deal of questioning, some have raised a concern that perhaps if she were a more prominent citizen, member of the community, she would not have been subjected to that kind of interrogation.”
“Greg, I think that’s… I don’t know who is communicating that to you, but I believe that’s a misimpression and incorrect assessment of the case,” said Mr. Vance. “I think we look at every case carefully.”
Mr. Kelly’s accuser reported the alleged assault to police at the 13th precinct Tuesday night, The NY Daily News reports. The woman, who is believed to be “around 30,” said she had drinks with Mr. Kelly, 43, at the South Street Seaport on October 8th of last year before he allegedly assaulted her inside the law firm office where she worked.
Given Mr. Kelly’s ties to the NYPD —his father is Police Commissioner Ray Kelly— the case is being investigated by Cy Vance’s office. Mr. Kelly has not been criminally charged.
Mr. Kelly did not appear on Good Day New York today following these accusations.
drosen@observer.com
