The NFL finds itself caught in the middle of a situation that cries out for the justice that it never received when it happened more than a decade ago.
Via the New York Post, the lawyer currently representing Luisa Esposito has asked Commissioner Roger Goodell to encourage Lisa Friel, the league’s special counsel for investigations to take action in a case that fell under her jurisdiction when the situation arose in 2005.
Esposito contends that attorney Allen Isaac groped her and demanded sexual favors from her in connection with representation stemming from an automobile accident. Esposito managed to capture one of her meetings with Isaac on tape, and it was enough to get him kicked out of the Wall Street law firm he founded. However, Isaac never was prosecuted.
So why Friel? At the time, she led the Manhattan District Attorney’s Sex-Crimes Unit, and she didn’t prosecute Isaac. So Esposito’s new lawyer, Peter Gleason, wants Goodell to tell Friel to tell the DA to move on the case.
On the surface, the approach seems nonsensical. Why would the DA’s office listen to Friel, years after she left the job? (Besides, the DA’s office seems to indeed be acting on the case.) At a deeper level, the strategy makes plenty of sense, because Gleason has managed to use the NFL connection as a way to bring attention to the story -- and possibly to achieve justice for his client, 13 years after the fact.