Managing Partner
A year ago, on October 31, 2023, I stood before a Broome County jury as defense counsel for Yaron “Ron” Kweller and gave a summation on “The Colonial Rape Case.” The case captivated the media, due to the sensational allegations of multiple women being drugged and raped in the basement of The Colonial Bar in Binghamton, New York. None of these allegations were true, but the social media rumor mill kept churning them out and no one cared. In pre-trial jury polling, close to 97% of those polled said our clients were “guilty to very guilty.”
At eight months pregnant, I had the jury’s sympathy. My feet barely fit into court shoes. My bump was barely contained by maternity dresses. Each time I stood to object, the court officers looked at me for signs of distress. Working 18-20 hour days on trial, I developed an eye infection, pneumonia and a persistent cough that took a hospital admission and some powerful steroids to go away. I was hundreds of miles away from home. Away from my physician, who four weeks later would deliver my daughter. Away from my husband, who held it down at home and managed our two-year-old with the help of our phenomenal nanny.
Yet, on October 31, 2023, none of that mattered. We brought the case to the finish line. We’ve effectively cross-examined the People’s witnesses, exposing the inconsistences in their narrative and their motivations. Sadly, all too frequently, wealthy men find themselves in the middle of sexual assault allegations, or even worse, criminal cases, not because of what they’ve done, but because of what could be obtained from them. Call it redistribution of wealth.
What the jury did not know about or see, is how much work went into the case. Hundreds, if not thousands of hours were dedicated by investigators, expert witnesses, consultants, polling companies, and a group of talented attorneys. What we’ve uncovered is that there was no truth to these sexual assault charges and there was nothing criminal that our clients were involved with. The person who posted about multiple women coming forward and reporting sexual assaults in the basement of The Colonial came clean to our investigators about making up that entire story.
In criminal defense, the odds are stacked against us every time. The jury never roots for the “bad guy.” They side with the prosecutor who gallops into court on their white horse of justice. Justice is blind and not swayed by political motivation or public outcry. But the continued prosecution in this case defied both factual and legal logic. The real “bad guys” in this situation were the prosecutors, who did not have the courage to stand up to public pressure and admit that there was no crime committed. To this day, I don’t know how the District Attorney’s Office continued for years with this baseless prosecution considering their ethical and prosecutorial obligations.
Two hours after the jury received the legal instructions, and did read backs, they acquitted both Ron and Jordan of every single count against them. Complete knock out. After a two-year battle, Ron and Jordan weren’t facing the prospect of spending the next 5 to 25 years of their lives in the Department of Corrections.
Although I did not speak to the jury after the trial, I received countless emails from news reporters, public defenders, fellow attorneys and members of the community who watched the trial. Collectively, their feedback was that Ron and Jordan were not only “not guilty,” but they were actually innocent.
Each Halloween, I will think of this wild trial that got me admitted to the hospital and have an extra piece of candy in honor of Ron. Happy Acquittal-versary, Ron! Until next time, Binghamton!
