NYPD Detective Withheld Evidence Favorable to Weinstein

Nicholas DiGaudio, an investigator with the NYPD, has built a career bringing sexual predators to justice and among victims he has a reputation of being an effective and sensitive interrogator, but defense attorneys for Harvey Weinstein claim he crossed the line when he went after their client. Prosecutors admit that DiGaudio withheld evidence favorable to Weinstein, which led the judge to dismiss part of the indictment against him. They also admit that he instructed one of the women in the case not to turn over evidence. DiGaudio’s fellow cops say he’s a fall guy for problems stemming from the terrible relationship between the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and the NYPD, and he’s going to take a terrible beating at the trial because the defense can’t go after the victims so they’ll go after him. But they admit that there is no getting around the fact that DiGaudio gave them a weapon when he withheld evidence. Last October prosecutors dropped a charge connected to a woman who alleged that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004, when she was a college student and aspiring actress. Required by law to turn over information that might exonerate the defendant, a prosecutor sent a letter to Weinstein’s attorney disclosing that a woman who accompanied the alleged victim the night she met Weinstein had given DiGaudio a contradictory account of what transpired and the detective had instructed her to keep quiet.