Goldman Sachs Exec Pleads Not Guilty To Raping Woman In Hamptons Bathroom
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A New York City investment banker is free on bail after being arraigned Friday on charges that he raped a woman he met at a nightclub on Long Island.
Jason Lee, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, was initially arrested a month ago after the woman accused him of attacking her in a bathroom at a home he had rented in East Hampton with his wife.
With his wife by his side, Lee, 37, left a courthouse in Riverhead after his arraignment without saying a word.
Goldman Sachs Exec Pleads Not Guilty To Rape Charges
Lee pleaded not guilty. A judge set bail at $100,000 cash, which Lee posted after the arraignment.
His lawyer, Edward Burke Jr., told reporters his client is innocent.
Goldman Sachs Exec Pleads Not Guilty To Rape Charges
"We have what is a rush to arrest my client, a rush to the grand jury and a rush to indict my client,'' Burke said. "My client is adamant that he did not do this and adamant that he did not perform these serious allegations upon this complainant at all.''
When asked whether the sex between Lee and the woman was consensual, Burke said, "Yes, it was.''
"This case will show and demonstrate that Jason Lee did not do these acts that he is accused of," Burke said. "The forcible nature of this case and what appears to be a very violent exchange, I will tell you all there is not a bump, there is not a bruise, there is not a scratch on my client at all.
Prosecutors said Lee was celebrating his birthday at a club in Wainscott when he invited the 20-year-old woman and her friends back to his rental home. The woman said that once at the house, Lee undressed, forced his way into a bathroom and pinned her to the floor.
"She was forcibly raped," Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota said, adding that the woman was treated at a hospital following the assault. "The injuries were consistent with the allegations that she was making with respect to what occurred in the bathroom."
He said she was from Ireland but was working in the U.S. at the time of the attack. She has since returned home, but will come back to New York for a trial, Spota said.
Lee is on a leave of absence from Goldman Sachs' equity capital markets department. He lives in Manhattan.
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