Even as tabloids began crucifying 40-year-old Montessori teacher Lina Sinha and a New York court slammed her with 81 charges, her high-profile lawyer Gerald Shargel has told rediff.com that she is innocent.
Charges against Sinha include initiating sex with two former students when the boys were just about 12 and 13.
"My comment is that she did not engage in any improper act with any student at any time," Shargel, whose clients have included the late Mafia boss John Gotti's family, asserted.
"This will be demonstrated at the trial." He made the comments on Wednesday, the day after prosecutors indicted Sinha for allegedly abusing one of the boys. In October last year, she had been charged with raping the first boy, allegedly initiating sex with him when he was 13. That boy is now a New York police officer.
'Montessori's Lady Perv Nailed in School Boy Sex Romp', said The New York Post, but Shargel said the facts would prove that Sinha is the victim of lies.
The charges against her include rape, sodomy and faking evidence.
The case against her started building last October -- a few months after she complained to the police that a former student had repeatedly beaten her up. The complaint was made to the Internal Affairs Department.
The officer, according to Sinha's lawyer, made the statutory rape allegations against her following her complaint. He claimed that she had begun a relationship with him in 1996 when he was 13 and continued it for more than four years.
Sinha's then lawyer Henry Mazurek, who works for Shargel's firm, would not explain why the police officer was keeping in touch with Sinha but he said the alleged assaults were supposed to have taken place in her apartment.
This week, officials said another man had come forward alleging that Sinha, who is unmarried, had initiated sex with him when he was 12.
"Ms Sinha steadfastly denies this allegation and the young man, now an adult, who is making the claim, has little credibility," Shargel said.
Shargel also called the DA's request for cash bail as a publicity stunt, adding that he had convinced the court to let Sinha remain free on a bond of $50,000.
Sinha's sister, Naina Sinha, and a cousin, Priya Anthunadan, posted the bail The Post reported.
"I think the prosecutor was exaggerating and overstating the case and that was apparent to everyone in the courtroom," he added.
Lead prosecutor Florence Chapin, who is also an assistant district attorney, had said that Sinha is a flight risk and that she could flee to India and hide there.
"I made the argument that she presented no risk of flight," Shargel said, " that she was innocent, that she intended to fight these charges and it was on that basis that the judge ruled."
The case could go to trial in August this year.
Earlier, Chapin had told the court that Sinha, who was also the director of East Side Montessori School started by her mother, is a sexual predator.
His pronouncement came soon after Sinha pleaded she was not guilty of any of the charges.
"She used her unique power and position as teacher to manipulate and control these boys," he asserted.
The sexual encounter with the second boy began five years ago when he was 12, Chapin claimed.
Chapin also said that Sinha made up the assault accusation against the police officer soon after he had tried to break up with her. And she also made up 'heinous allegations' that he had raped a young girl, Chapin added.
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