‘Missing witness’ charge bid fails

Jason Lee’s lawyer yesterday failed to bring a missing witness charge against the prosecution based on a social media page belonging to the brother of the alleged victim.

Judge Barbara Kahn denied the application made by Andrew Lankler, representing Mr Lee, and agreed with the prosecution that the Irish woman’s brother refused to appear in spite of repeated offers to pay for his travel costs and that he could not be compelled to appear.

The alleged victim, then a J1 student, had spent the summer working elsewhere in the US before visiting her brother in the Hamptons. She met Mr Lee at a nightclub in East Hampton during the early hours of August 20, 2013. The 38-year-old former executive with Goldman Sachs denies raping the woman later that night.