Marissa Hoechstetter + Ambra Gutierrez Respond to Linda Fairstein Story, Push Adult Survivors Act

NEW YORK, NY (05/07/2021) (readMedia)-- On Friday, Marissa Hoechstetter and Ambra Battilana-Gutierrez will join with Manhattan DA Candidate Alvin Bragg and Attorney Carrie Goldberg to push for justice for survivors wronged by the Manhattan District Attorney's office. The Huffington Post reported yesterday that Linda Fairstein, the famed former New York City sex crimes prosecutor, maintained a close relationship with her successor Martha Bashford and weighed in on ongoing cases, including Harvey Weinstein's. The HuffPo story details how Fairstein primed Bashford for her interview with Ambra in which she asked a victim of a sex crime if she'd ever been a prostitute. Weinstein was subsequently never charged for the assault against Ambra.

The group will connect the failure of the DA to the need for the New York State Legislature to pass the Adult Survivors Act (ASA). This critically important legislation would create a one-year window to allow individuals who were sexually assaulted as adults to sue their abusers and negligent institutions in court, no matter how long ago the abuse took place. The ASA's one-year window is similar to the lookback period under the Child Victims Act, which has to date allowed over 5,000 survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits.