NYC Lawyer Charged With Groping 2 Female Attorneys at Office
Updated: A former name partner in a New York plaintiffs firm has been criminally charged for allegedly groping two female attorneys while working at his own small-firm law office.
Richard Dienst, 67, is charged with forcible touching, third-degree sex abuse and harassment after incidents concerning two female lawyers in March 2008 and June 2007 in what was then his law office on the 18th floor of the Woolworth Building, according to Newsday and a partner in charge of the law firm that subleased the office space to him.
According to the Associated Press, a prosecutor says a plea deal is being negotiated in the misdemeanor case. Matt Freimuth, who represents Dienst, declined to comment.
Dienst was formerly a senior name partner and counsel with Queller Fisher Dienst Serrins Washor & Kool, but has not been a lawyer for the firm since 2003, Barry Washor, its senior managing partner, told ABAJournal.com. Queller Fisher subleased office space to Dienst after he formed his own firm, as it does to other law firms, too, but that arrangement with Dienst ended “after the investigation came to light” and it was mutually agreed that it would be best for Dienst to move his law office elsewhere, Washor says.
Washor says he is aware of only one female attorney who has complained about Dienst, and she, too, works for another law firm that subleases space from Queller Fisher.
“I know nothing about the details of it; I know that there was an allegation made, and I know that there was an investigation” by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, he says. The allegation concerns conduct on Good Friday this year, when his firm’s offices were closed, he adds.
The AP article says a complaint alleges that, in a March 21, 2008 incident, Dienst “place[d] his hand on [the woman’s] breasts and stated to [her] in substance, ‘I just want to see how great your [breasts] look. I just want to feel how great your [breasts] feel.’ Then he allegedly lifted her shirt and tried “to place his mouth on [the woman’s] breast,” the complaint continues. It says Dienst then put his hand down the back of her pants, put her hand down the front of his pants and said to her, “in substance, ‘Look what you did to an old man. You made an old man’s weekend.’ “
Dienst is known for his work in police cases, and has taught at Cardozo Law School, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., according to AP.
Updated at 4:40 p.m. to include Associated Press coverage.
