Posted on 09/20/2002 5:17:59 AM PDT by Pern
Cops probed, cleared 20 men she accused.
A Park Ave. businessman was interrupted by detectives while taking a bath, and then stopped while walking his dog. An upper East Side lawyer was questioned about his wife's mental illness at his home late at night.
And a billionaire art mogul was followed as he traveled to his Manhattan haunts.
All three men were on a list of about 20 litigants who had been fingered by Acting Supreme Court Justice Marylin Diamond as potential authors of a series of bizarre messages that threatened her life, law enforcement sources told the Daily News.
But, as The News first reported Sunday, a criminal profiler who analyzed 48 letters sent to Diamond's Manhattan chambers and her upper East Side home over three years concluded that the author of the deadly letters was the judge herself.
Cops have no hard evidence linking Diamond to the letters.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday that the investigation into who sent the letters remains open. "There is an examination being done," he said, declining to comment further on the case.
One letter contained what looked to be a piece of "skin from a person's nose" that turned out to be plastic, and another was filled with purported anthrax that was really biscuit mix. In some letters, the writer called Diamond a pig. Others were anti-Semitic. All threatened her life.
Criticized ruling
Tom Snowdon, the ex-husband of fashion designer Cathy Hardwick, said he was questioned twice in 1999, shortly after the letters began arriving at Diamond's chambers.
One of the first letters to arrive read: "You bitch. I see you every day on the train. I'm going to ... crucify you. Maybe I'll see you in hell."
Diamond told detectives she had spotted Snowdon on the train, he said.
"Detectives visited me twice, and told me the judge said she saw me on the subway and she was receiving threatening letters. I never threatened her," Snowdon said. "This whole thing sounds pretty nutty. What can I say?"
Snowdon was critical of Diamond after his divorce case in 1998, saying the judge awarded him nothing, discounting his efforts in helping build five businesses with his ex-wife, who was worth millions.
Two years later, Snowdon's name appeared on a list of about 20 possible suspects Diamond turned over to court officers in Manhattan Supreme Court - who were providing her with around-the-clock security.
Sources said cops checked out the names on the list - but one by one, they were cleared.
One of them was a Manhattan lawyer who told The News that investigators grilled him at his upper East Side home.
The cops told the lawyer that Diamond had accused him of writing the letters during his November 1999 divorce and child custody battle with a wife he claims was mentally ill, he said.
"It came as a complete shock," said the lawyer, who asked not to be identified. "By then, I was already surprised at Judge Diamond's behavior in the courtroom, so I was completely stunned that she would now accuse me of threatening her.
"This judge was certainly not acting properly, in my opinion, as a judge. There was certainly nothing to indicate I would do something like threaten her. The accusation came out of nowhere."
Billionaire art mogul Alec Wildenstein - ordered to pay his wife $200,000 a month in alimony by Diamond - also was among the men questioned, sources said. Investigators followed him on at least two occasions, according to the sources.
Wildenstein was traveling and could not be reached yesterday, said his lawyer, Raoul Felder.
"I think it's absurd to think Wildenstein wrote letters," said Felder, who represented the art dealer during his 1998 divorce.
Felder slammed Diamond for showing up for a deposition at his office with bodyguards last year.
"Her security was very visible, even though no one in my office had more than a pencil," he said. "Did she write the letters? I don't know, anyone is capable of anything."
Dead-end leads
After the threats began, Diamond was shadowed by security, primarily state court officers, for three years. Detectives from the threat assessment unit, part of the NYPD's elite Intelligence Division, tried to determine who was writing the hate mail.
Every lead turned up nothing, so investigators turned to Ray Pierce, a renowned FBI profiler and retired NYPD detective who founded the department's criminal assessment and profiling unit.
After studying the letters, Pierce concluded the author was Diamond herself, law enforcement sources said.
Pierce based his findings on a number of factors, including the fact the threats intensified when her security detail was about to be discontinued. He told cops the only one with anything to gain by the letters was Diamond, sources said.
At one point, she turned over a letter with white powder during the anthrax scare, but the substance was found to be biscuit mix. The same week the letter arrived, investigators found an empty box of biscuit mix in the garbage at Diamond's East Side townhouse, sources said.
Her security detail was abruptly pulled last week when The News contacted her about Pierce's findings, which she blasted as "totally incorrect and grossly irresponsible."
But the detail was restored because of security concerns after the News article appeared Sunday, said David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration.
Asked about Diamond's list of suspects, Bookstaver declined comment yesterday. He also has refused to reveal the cost of protecting the judge for three years. But a law enforcement source said Diamond has cost taxpayers "an ungodly amount of money."
Why hasn't she been suspending pending an investigation?
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