Sex Crime Disbarment
An attorney’s criminal conviction has led to automatic disbarment by the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department.
On February 26, 2016, respondent was convicted, after trial, in Supreme Court, New York County, of sexual abuse in the first degree in violation of Penal Law § 130.65(1), a class D felony, and criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation in violation of Penal Law § 121.11(a), a class A misdemeanor.
On June 10, 2016, respondent was sentenced to a four-year term of incarceration, three years of supervised release, fines and surcharges, and was required to register as a sex offender.
The New York Post covered the criminal case
A judge tossed a wealthy Manhattan lawyer in prison for 4 years Friday for sexually attacking a woman on the fold-out Murphy bed in his office as his portly victim blasted him for insulting her weight.
“It was implied it never could have happened as my 200-plus pound frame was too fat to be pushed down, held down, and pulled around like a rag doll,” the weepy victim read from a statement as her assailant Dan Nelson, 39, sat a few feet away in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“I found myself pinned to a bare mattress, fighting my hardest and thinking, ‘I’m a big girl. I’m strong. I can get this man off me.’
Defense lawyer Tim Parlatore argued at trial that the victim’s story didn’t add up because the Italian-made $5,732 Murphy bed outfitted in the conference room of his Midtown office couldn’t sustain such a heavy load.
The victim met her attacker nearly two years ago at a bar and agreed to go home with him.
The two sloshed strangers went back to his firm Nelson & McCulloch where they stripped off their clothes and made out.
But when she changed her mind about the one-night stand, he pinned her to the Murphy bed, choked her and digitally penetrated her before she broke free and fled naked into the street.
The jury acquitted Nelson of the top count of attempted rape but found him guilty of sexual abuse and obstruction of breathing.
The 36-year-old woman also scoffed at Nelson’s claim he didn’t try to rape her because he has erectile dysfunction and didn’t take his medication.
“It was implied there was a simple reason you hadn’t because as I eventually read from the front page of the newspaper you had forgotten to take your Viagra pill,” she said. “But you and I both know what you did to me that night.”
ADA Maxine Rosenthal blasted Nelson for a history of “degrading and abusing” women and asked the judge to give him the maximum of 7 years.
Parlatore countered that Nelson is truly a gentleman – aside from one night of alcohol-induced boorishness.
‘And that even Nelson’s ex-wife and an ex-girlfriend had written character letters attesting to his harmless nature.
Justice Patricia Nunez was not persuaded.
“The fear that would cause a woman to run out into the street stark naked with none of her possessions, with nothing on her, yelling for help, is striking,” she said.
Nelson, wearing a dapper blue suit with a pocket square was cuffed and hauled away.
(Mike Frisch)