Mr. Levy, 45, whose mother is the reality television judge Judy Sheindlin, has not denied that he advised the friend, Alexandru Hossu, about legal tactics. He has acknowledged that he contributed money toward Mr. Hossu’s legal expenses, and he did not object when his brother-in-law Daniel Mentzer was named Mr. Hossu’s new lawyer.
To avoid a conflict of interest, he sent the case early on to the Westchester County district attorney for prosecution. But emails between him and Mr. Hossu’s former lawyer, Robert Y. Altchiler, obtained by The New York Times, indicate that he took an aggressive role in trying to shape the defense.
Mr. Levy hired a private investigator who unearthed a report by the Putnam County sheriff’s office about Mr. Hossu’s complaint that his girlfriend at the time — the mother of the girl he is charged with raping — had broken into his apartment last year and was found there using aerosol sprays as stimulants, according to the emails and lawyers familiar with the case.
The report was important because it had details reflecting on the psychological state of the girl, who was 13 when she says she was raped in 2010, and her family. Her mother died of a drug overdose a week after the alleged break-in.
Mr. Levy let Mr. Altchiler know that the girl had been seen by doctors in a psychiatric ward at Putnam County Hospital, though he said, inaccurately, that it was before she reported being raped. He urged the lawyer to contact the grand jury foreman through the court to let him know that certain witnesses had not been called who would have been useful to the defense, the emails indicate.
Mr. Levy, who became district attorney in 2008 and will next face election in 2015, also repeatedly disparaged the Westchester County district attorney’s office. He called prosecutors there “dopes” for securing the indictment of Mr. Hossu, dismissed the sex-crimes prosecutor as “incompetent” and said District Attorney Janet DiFiore was “unethical” and a “coward” for not releasing exonerating material.
“All Janet cares about is her political future,” Mr. Levy wrote.
Asked to explain his involvement in the defense, he issued a statement on Monday blaming his feud with the Putnam County sheriff, Donald B. Smith, for his feeling forced to “become involved as a private citizen to clear my name and ensure that Alex Hossu received a full and fair trial.”
“I offered advice and opinions but never did I interfere or cross any ethical or professional lines,” he said, contending that all documents he looked at were publicly available. His spokesman, Hank Sheinkopf, added in a later email, “Mr. Altchiler — who took the money and ran — now blames everyone else for his own failures and unethical conduct.”
Ms. DiFiore asked Justice Lester B. Adler of State Supreme Court on Monday to demand an inquiry to “ascertain potential conflicts of interest” between Mr. Hossu and his current lawyer, Mr. Mentzer, Mr. Levy’s brother-in-law. Ms. DiFiore urged the judge to “advise the defendant of the risks attendant to being represented by an attorney with those potential conflicts of interest” and to ensure Mr. Hossu was aware of Mr. Levy’s other unorthodox actions so that he could not cite them as grounds for an appeal should he be found guilty.
Bennett L. Gershman, a professor at Pace Law School and an expert on prosecutorial ethics, has called Mr. Levy’s conduct “unprecedented” for a prosecutor and “bizarre.” In an interview, Mr. Gershman cautioned that Mr. Levy could expose himself to a charge of obstruction of justice or could be disciplined by a board of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court.
“It’s not behavior that any public figure would engage in,” he said, “but here we’re talking about a prosecutor whose job it is to protect the safety of victims and enforce the law, not meddle and sabotage a prosecution of his friend.”
Mr. Mentzer did not return calls seeking comment about possible conflicts in his representation of Mr. Hossu.
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