Detective May Have Asked Weinstein Accuser To Delete Material Off Her Phone

The lead detective in the Harvey Weinstein criminal assault case has been accused of telling an accuser to delete materials off her phone.

The Guardian reports that the anonymous woman, who says Weinstein raped her at a Manhattan hotel in 2013, was asked during the investigation to give prosecutors mobile phones she was using while she interacted with Weinstein. While the woman was willing to hand the phones over, she said that she was worried about “data of a personal nature that she regarded as private” on the phone.

Detective Nicholas DiGaudio on the case then allegedly told the woman to delete the private material she didn’t want others to see, adding that he wouldn’t tell district attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon about it. The woman eventually consulted with a lawyer and handed over the phone without anything deleted.

This is the second time DiGaudio has faced allegations of tampering in the investigation. Just last week a charge in the Weinstein investigation was dropped when it came to light that DiGuadio had not told prosecutors that a witness’s account contradicted the testimony of accuser Lucia Evans. Weinstein was charged in May for forcing Evans to perform oral sex on him, but a friend told DiGuadio that she was told the act was consensual. In light of the detective withholding this information, the charge was dropped, and DiGaudio has since been removed from the Weinstein case.