A Manhattan lawyer was found dead in Mexico City two days after prosecutors unmasked him as part of a kiddie porn-swapping ring, officials said yesterday.
The body of Harvard Law graduate Moshe Gerstein, 35, was discovered June 16. The circumstances of his death were unclear, and his family could not be reached.
Neighbors at a W. 60th St. luxury rental building where investigators executed a warrant on his computer in May said the married Gerstein moved a month ago.
Prosecutors said they found 5,000 images of sexual assaults on kids on the computer. He was nabbed March 11, one of 26 men accused of trading child porn.
He was released on $5,000 bail and faced up to seven years in prison.
News of Gerstein's death was first published in an obituary by his family in a small Massachusetts newspaper, The Republican, and more widely circulated by a legal website, Abovethelaw.com.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico confirmed the death.
"Consular officials are aware of the death and have been assisting the family," spokesman Alexander Featherstone told Reuters.
As the charges were dropped it means that there was no case against this man . However the prosecutors willingly destroyed his life before all relevant facts were known. If there really were child porn on his computer, the case would not have dropped.
ReplyDeleteThe charges were dropped upon his death. This is not unusual in law. Examples would be: charges were immediately dropped by the Justice Department upon Osama Bid Ladens death. The day Ken Lay of Enron fame died, all charges were dropped legally. Upon death, charges are routinely dropped in felony cases as the deceased can no longer defend himself/herself.
ReplyDeleteAngel Eyes, if he were innocent, he wouldn't have run and killed himself. Like anonymous said, the charges were dropped because he's dead.
ReplyDeleteNo, if you could detect a person's guilt by his abscondtion, then we wouldn't trials. Sorry dude you need to take course in Schroedinger's equations and possibly the Schwartz-Christofel transformations. Not all sets are dense and compact. Some have open finite subcovers which are not open. Take chill pill.
ReplyDeleteWhat were the circumstances of Mr Gerstein's death? Did he blow his brains out at a ratty hotel or did he check in to the Four Seasons and order a bottle of the best champagne to wash down a bottle full of sleeping pills (bought at the Duane Reade near Columbus Circle) and then get dressed in a tuxedo and climb under the covers and go to sleep? Where was Mrs Gerstein?
ReplyDelete