By Zach Patberg
“Defendant asked if (the victim) has written her book yet, and stated that it is a symbol of a true victim when you get the book rights,” detectives wrote in a three-page statement given to them by Braunstein that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Yates ordered released to the public Monday, the Daily News said.Braunstein, 41, a free-lance journalist who lived for a time with his mother in Kew Gardens, allegedly gained entry to a co-worker's Chelsea apartment on Oct. 31 by posing as a firefighter, then tied the woman up and sexually abused her for 13 hours. An almost two-month-long manhunt ensued after Braunstein fled the city and traveled to Ohio and ultimately Tennessee, where a University of Memphis police officer arrested him Dec. 16. Braunstein, according to the papers, expressed surprise that he failed to end his life when he stabbed himself that day, “because he did research and studied the carotid artery,” newspapers said.Braunstein, who is in the psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery and burglary. His attorney, Robert Gottlieb, is considering an insanity defense. The unsealing of the document posed yet another setback for Gottlieb, who objected to its release and has sought an immediate gag order in the case due to leaked information that appeared in two previous New York Post articles, which he said has “severely impeded Mr. Braunstein's ability to receive a fair trial.”Detectives also wrote in the report that Braunstein berated his estranged father, who is reportedly paying for his son's legal fees, as a “media whore,” newspapers reported.Accompanying the lengthy statement was a nine-page inventory of Braunstein's seized property that included his victim's resume and driver's license, a glass jar labeled “chloroform” and some green rope that could have been used to tied the woman up, the News said.Reach reporter Zach Patberg at news@timesledger.com or at 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.
