Martha Bashford, the chief of the sex crimes unit at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office who recommended the DA not to prosecute Harvey Weinstein, reportedly resigned on Friday amid the disgraced movie mogul’s rape trial. “…40 years is a long time to stay in one place, and it is time for me to give notice that I will be moving on,” Bashford wrote in a Feb. 7 letter to DA Cyrus Vance Jr., The New York Post reported. “Please tell whomever you choose to be the next Chief that they are getting by far the best position this Office has to offer—in my humble opinion.” Vance, on Bashford’s recommendation, decided not to prosecute Weinstein in 2015 for allegedly groping Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez despite evidence from an NYPD audio recording on which Weinstein could be heard apologizing for his conduct. Gov. Andrew Cuomo later ordered an investigation into Vance’s handling of the sexual assault allegation. Vance replaced veteran sex crimes prosecutor Maxine Rosenthal in 2018 with Assistant DA Joan Illuzzi Orbon after Rosenthal allegedly referred to a Weinstein accuser as one of “Harvey’s girls.”
