Lawyers: Suspect in NYC Fake-Firefighter Case Has Fractured Skull

NEW YORK (AP)  -- A writer accused of posing as a firefighter and sexually abusing a woman one Halloween night has suffered a fractured skull while jailed, his lawyers said Monday.

Lawyer Robert C. Gottlieb, who reported last week that his client, Peter Braunstein, had a brain hematoma (bleeding), said during a court conference he did not know how his client got the skull fracture. He said Braunstein has not told him how it happened.

Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal told state Supreme Court Justice James Yates during the conference that a Rikers Island jail official told her Braunstein's injury was self-inflicted. She said the official said he banged his head on a sink in his cell, possibly in an attempt to delay his trial.

Gottlieb's law associate, Celia Gordon, said the doctor who examined Braunstein told her he does not believe that's what happened. She said he believed a much more forceful blow would have been needed to cause the fracture.

Gordon said Braunstein occasionally is suffering severe headaches. She said doctors have not suggested a need for surgery but the judge may need to postpone the trial on any given day if the defendant's headaches are unbearable.

Yates, who will preside at Braunstein's trial, said he will review Braunstein's medical records but sees no reason yet why pretrial hearings cannot proceed Wednesday as scheduled. The trial is expected to start in two weeks.

Braunstein, 42, is accused of imprisoning and sexually assaulting a 34-year-old former Women's Wear Daily colleague in her Manhattan apartment for 13 hours starting Halloween night 2005. He was on the run for six weeks before being captured.

Braunstein was arrested Dec. 16, 2005, on the University of Memphis campus in Tennessee. He tried unsuccessfully to kill himself by stabbing himself in the neck as a campus policeman approached while pointing a gun at him.

Braunstein has pleaded not guilty to arson, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, sexual abuse and assault charges.

Gottlieb has said he will introduce evidence at trial that Braunstein was mentally ill during the alleged attack on the woman and therefore should not be held criminally responsible for his acts against her.