Linda Fairstein Biography
Linda Fairstein is an American author and former prosecutor who focuses on crimes of violence against women and children.
From 1976 until 2002, Linda was the head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
During her time, she oversaw the prosecution of the Central Park jogger case.
Linda is the best-selling author of a series of novels featuring the Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper.
Linda Fairstein Age
Fairstein was born on May 5, 1947, in Mount Vernon, New York. She is 72 years old as of 2019.
Linda Fairstein Husband
Fairstein is married to Michael Goldberg, her long-time friend, and classmate at the University of Virginia School of Law. Michael is a lawyer. The couple got married in September 2014 and they reside in the Upper East Side in New York.
Linda was previously married to lawyer Justin Feldman from 1987 until his death in 2011 at the age of 92.
Linda Fairstein Central Park Jogger Case | Central Park Five
Linda’s office supervised the prosecution in 1990 of the Central Park Jogger case. The prosecution ended in the conviction of five teenagers whose convictions were later vacated.
In a lawsuit, the five who were convicted claimed that Linda with the assistance of the detectives at the 20th Precinct coerced false confessions from the five arrested teenagers.
The teenagers underwent up to thirty straight hours of interrogation and intimidation, of both the youths and their supporting adults.
When US attorney David Nocenti, a “Big Brother” mentor to Yusef Salaam, one of the defendants, appeared at the precinct while the defendant was being grilled.
He claimed Linda verbally abused him, demanded he leave immediately, then called her husband to demand the home number of Nocenti’s then boss, Brooklyn US Attorney Andrew Maloney, so she could get the young attorney fired.
The convicted teenagers were Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise. They later claimed that their confessions were coerced during interrogation through lies and intimidation.
Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise had signed written confessions, while Yousef Salaam, made a verbal confession but refused to sign.
They were convicted of various assault and sexual battery charges based in part on the allegedly false confessions obtained from the five teens in 1989.
Linda’s behavior, however, seemed so outrageous to one judge that in the 1993 appeals decision on Salaam’s case, then-appellate court judge Vito Titone specifically named her in his dissenting opinion and said in an interview;
“I was concerned about a criminal justice system that would tolerate the conduct of the prosecutor, Linda Fairstein, who deliberately engineered the 15-year-old’s confession. … Fairstein wanted to make a name. She didn’t care. She wasn’t a human.”
Central Park Five Vacation
In 2002, All five convictions were vacated after convicted rapist Matias Reyes confessed to the crime.
DNA testing of semen found on the victim confirmed that Reyes was the sole contributor of the DNA found on the victim, to a certainty of 6 billion to 1
In 2003, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana Jr., and Antron McCray sued the city of New York for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress. A settlement in the case was reached on June 19, 2014, for $41 million.
Linda Fairstein Oliver Jovanovic Controversy
Oliver Jovanovic sued Linda alleging that she engaged in “false arrest, malicious prosecution, malicious abuse of process and denial of his right to a fair trial”.
The lawsuit stemmed from Linda’s successful prosecution of Jovanovic in the case People v. Jovanovic, which was subsequently overturned on appeal. It was then dismissed with prejudice by a new trial judge.
There was no physical evidence linking Jovanovic to the crime. His accuser claimed she had been brutally attacked and left bleeding but there were only a few fading bruises later found.
Former New York City sex crimes detective John Baeza, who worked in defense of Jovanovic after leaving the force, said; “If she [Linda] couldn’t tell this was a false report, well, I am just shocked.”
The $10 million lawsuits against Linda and two co-defendants, former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Gail Heatherly, who now teaches at the Columbia Law School, and New York City Police Detective Milton Bonilla, was dismissed on summary judgment in September 2010.
Linda Fairstein Net Worth
Fairstein has an estimated net worth of around $17 Million.
Linda Fairstein Novels
Linda is an international best-selling author of a series of crime novels featuring Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper.
These novels are:
- Final Jeopardy (1996)
- Likely To Die (1997)
- Cold Hit (1999)
- The Dead-House (2001) (Nero Award winner)
- The Bone Vault (2003)
- The Kills (2004)
- Entombed (2005)
- Death Dance (2006)
- Bad Blood (2007)
- Killer Heat (2008)
- Lethal Legacy (2009)
- Hell Gate (2010)
- Silent Mercy (March 2011)
- Night Watch (July 2012)
- Death Angel (2013)
- Terminal City (2014)
- Devil’s Bridge (2015)
- Killer Look (2016)
- Deadfall (2017)
- Blood Oath (2019)
Linda Fairstein Awards
- Federal Bar Council’s Emory Buckner Award for Public Service
- UJA Federation’s Proskauer Award
- Columbia University’s School of Medicine Award for Excellence
- Glamour Magazine’s Woman of the Year Award
- American Heart Association Women of Courage Award
- New York Women’s Agenda 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award
- Nero Wolfe Award for Excellence in Crime Writing (2008)
- International Thriller Writers 2010 Silver Bullet Award
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