Embattled Bronx prosecutor Jennifer Troiano has canned her DWI lawyer - weeks after prosecutors revealed his daughter would be their star witness, the Daily News has learned.
Troiano, who was charged with driving drunk after a three-car wreck, dumped Howard Weiswasser and replaced him with Steven Epstein. Epstein is best known for getting former Bronx prosecutor Stephen Lopresti off the hook on a DWI charge.
Weiswasser had refused for months to quit - even though his daughter, Bronx Assistant District Attorney Amy Weiswasser, is expected to spill damaging details about Troiano's past indiscretions, prosecutors said.
Special prosecutor Erin LaFarge had been fighting to boot him from the case, citing a conflict of interest.
"They did [Howard] Weiswasser a favor by pushing him out. Otherwise, he'd have been cross-examining his own daughter," said a source. "It would have been unprecedented, and a complete disaster."
Epstein said he expects Troiano, who is due back in court today, to beat the drunken-driving rap.
"We are confident that a jury will find her not guilty because Ms. Troiano was not intoxicated," Epstein said.
Epstein won Lopresti's acquittal by hammering away at the credibility of two cops who busted him, both of whom brazenly fixed summonses for family and friends as part of a massive NYPD ticket-fixing scandal.
Troiano's case is expected to hinge on the testimony of Amy Weiswasser, to whom Troiano confessed to skirting two earlier drunken-driving cases, prosecutors said. Troiano, who was busted for DWI in the Bronx on Aug. 26 of last year, wriggled out of previous arrests in 2004 and 2006, prosecutors said. She dodged the 2004 DWI after drunkenly crashing a Bronx district attorney's office vehicle, sources said.
Amy Weiswasser, a close friend of Troiano's, is the only witness who can testify about the earlier cases, prosecutors said. Epstein said the prior two incidents never happened.
A judge will eventually rule on whether to allow to allow the testimony.
Neither of the Weiswassers could be reached for comment.
Troiano's trial is expected to begin this year.
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