All language subtitles for 2jfddbvkjsdbvkdsbvksdbvkjds

-A young woman's body
was found in Central Park.

-She was identified
as Jennifer Levin.

-She was just a bubbly,
outgoing, wonderful kid --

beautiful girl.

-My mother said,
"They strangled my baby."

-This kid put up
the fight of her life.

I mean, who does that?

That person has to pay.

-Police began to question
friends,

and a name kept coming up.

-Robert Chambers.

Oh, who's Robert Chambers?

-She was just having her way.
I was screaming in pain.

I couldn't take it anymore.

I yanked her as hard as I could,
and she just flipped over me.

And then she didn't move.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Static]

-Alright.

-Robert Chambers was giving
his version

of the events in Central Park
between him and Jennifer Levin.

-Uh, last night I was supposed
to meet a girl named Alex Kapp

at Dorrian's at 10:30,
and I got to Dorrian's late.

I got there about 11:30.

-He was talking freely.

He hadn't asked for a lawyer,
he did not seem nervous.

He was telling a story,
and he was sticking to it.

-According to him, she's the one
who suggests going to the park.

She's the one who's
the sexual aggressor.

-She started to play with me.
She started jerking me off.

You know, I started to say,
"Stop it, stop it. It hurts."

I just grabbed and yanked her
as hard as I could,

and she just flipped over me and
landed right next to the tree.

And then she didn't move.

-He had no intent to hurt her.

It an accident as to
how she wound up dead.

-So I...

[Groans]

I was lying like this...
-Okay.

-...okay, on my back,
and I couldn't move,

and I managed to get
this hand free, my legs are out

and she's facing this way,
sitting, really, on my chest.

So I reached up like this
and grabbed,

and I came down
like that on my hand.

She came over this way
and landed right there,

right next to the tree.

So I stood up, and, uh, I said,
"Jennifer, let's go.

Let's get out of here now,"
and she didn't move.

So I went over
and I shook the body,

and there was nothing happening,
no response.

At that --
-A dead body?

-No, I had no idea.

I thought she was kidding
around.

So I shook her,
and there was nothing.

She didn't move a muscle,
not a finger, anything.

-I wouldn't say he was arrogant,

but he certainly
gave the impression

that there was no reason why
we should not believe his story

and that
he should just be let go.

-No, I didn't want to --
I was scared.

I didn't want to touch her.

All I did was cross the street

and sit down
and sit there and stare.

No, I just stared.
That's all I did.

That's all I could do.

[Police radio chatter]

-And when you see the people
who arrive,

the ambulances
and the other people,

you just disappear and --
-No, I stayed there,

and I watched.

I didn't say anything.

-You stayed there and watch
the police come

and find the body
that you left of a young woman

that you knew
that you had relations with?

You just left her in the grass,
somebody's daughter?

You know...

-After that, I just walked home,
and I just went to sleep.

And when I woke up,
I thought it was a dream.

-You thought this was
all a dream?

-When I woke up at first,
I was like,

you know,
"That had to be a dream."

And about 10 minutes after that,
the police rang up

and came upstairs
to ask me some questions,

and then I've been here
since 1:30.

-I pressed him, because I simply
didn't believe him.

I thought his story was nonsense
from the beginning.

-No.

But I'm not gonna do anything
to harm her at all.

What am I gonna do, hit her
with a stick or something?

-His explanation as to how this
happened just doesn't jive

with what she looks like
on that autopsy table.

She was all busted up,
and it was -- It was gruesome.

You didn't have
to be a doctor --

You could just see this
with your own two eyes.

-I haven't seen the photos,

and I'd really rather
not see the photos.

-I took the pictures out, and I
threw the photos on the desk.

-Yes, I can see that.

Yeah.

No, I doubt I would be laughing.

It makes no sense
that somebody could do that.

It makes no sense that somebody
could put

your hands behind your back

and push you down and
then get on top of your chest.

So, you can move if you have
no arms to push anybody off --

-No way.

-Do you think
I'm gonna give her the consent

to squeeze my balls
and jerk me off?

Why not?

I'm -- I'm sure that I've heard

about other men being raped,

men being held up, tied up.

Well, good.
You're lucky.

You're very lucky.

It's not a ve--

Good. That really makes
no difference to me,

you see, 'cause it happens.

It can happen.
It did happen.

Her friends knew
she was all over me.

She told her friends
she definitely gonna (no audio)

tonight, my friends know
I didn't want to go with her,

I didn't even want
to talk to her,

they knew I wanted to go home,

they knew I was there
to see other people.

I didn't mean to hurt her.
I liked her very much.

She was very nice person,
easy to get along to,

and easy to talk to.

She was just too pushy,
and she liked me more than

I thought -- more than
anybody actually thought.

-He had this entire story
down pat in his head.

This was rough sex,
this poor boy --

you know, she was
hurting him in Central Park.

-It was an affront
to your common sense.

Will that be enough
to get a conviction?

I think it would be enough
to get a conviction.

-We all stood up, and, Robert,
he said to me,

"Well, are we finished?"

And I said, "What are
you talking about?

What don't you understand?
You're under arrest.

You're being charged
with murder."

So he sat back down, like,
shaking his head.

He seemed shocked.

♪♪

-Robert Chambers is transported
down to Central Booking

and goes through
the booking procedure.

It became apparent when
we went outside

that this was gonna be
a large news story

from the amount of people
that were there.

-From a detective's point
of view,

everything's tied up
in a package.

We thought this was a home run.

But that's not what happened.

-A suspect is under arrest
in the murder of a young woman

whose body was found
in Central Park,

and police say
he was not a stranger.

-Robert Chambers had confessed

to causing the death
of Jennifer Levin,

and it was front-page news
everywhere.

-Chambers came into this
Central Park Precinct

on his own yesterday afternoon.

He was asked to come in
for questioning.

When police saw him,

they noticed scratches
on his face and chest.

After several hours questioning,
they arrested him

and charged him
with second-degree murder.

They think the scratches
were made by Jennifer Levin

as she tried
to fight off his attack.

-From the beginning, we expected
this was gonna be a huge story.

-Attractive, popular,
a week away

from starting college
in Boston --

Jennifer Levin had so much
going for her,

and then her life ended.

-19-year-old Robert Chambers,
described as a handsome preppy

from an upper-class
neighborhood,

now faces a murder rap.

-It just wasn't
your normal homicide.

There was something to to this
that was gonna have legs

and was gonna be in the papers
for a while, and it was.

-When we saw the young person
who was accused of killing her,

everybody in the news room
stopped in their tracks,

because here was a young man

who looked like
the Hollywood Adonis.

We found out he came from
the Upper East Side,

lived in a beautiful
neighborhood,

attended private schools.

How did this happen?

-She was 18, a prep school
graduate on her way to college.

He was part of the same New York
circle, young and well-off.

-It's the haves, it's the world
of privilege -- private schools,

Upper East Side,
a Kennedy-esque-looking

young man accused of murder.

-The victim and the accused,
both prep school educated,

came from what people called
"good homes."

-You had two young white people
presumed to be of privilege,

both had attended different
private schools, they'd come

from a very well-known bar
in the Upper East Side,

so there was underage
drinking --

All of those elements just drove
this case to media attention.

-This sort of story was not
supposed to happen

to privileged children

who go to private schools
made out of mansions

who do not leave home
without American Express.

♪♪

-Being a tabloid reporter,
when you wake up in the morning,

what do you think of?

You think of -- "I've gotta --

I gotta get that story."

That never leaves you.

Even 10 years after
I've retired,

I still lust
for that scoop every day.

Why was Robert Chambers
a good story?

Well...

you have youth,

you have money,

you have sex,

you have death.

It just gripped the city.

♪♪

-That night,
I went to my apartment.

I was in a very bad way.

Everyone else in my family
had somebody.

You know, my husband
had his wife,

and Danielle had Jeff,

and my parents
had each other, and...

and I was single,
and I could not --

I just couldn't cope.

I was in bad shape.

My daughter had a great group
of friends, very popular,

always around people,
happy, doing well in school.

Honestly, I would never
have expected that.

It was shocking to me.

-After she died,
people would tell me

to be strong for my parents,
and, um, I don't --

I don't think people
truly realize --

You know, losing a child's
an awful thing.

I don't think people realize
how -- how close siblings are.

It was kind like we were two
sides of a coin,

and that just one side
was just sheared off of me.

I'm an only child now.

♪♪

-Do you have anything else
you'd like to say

about the judge's decision?
-Not -- Not really.

I hope you can appreciate that
feeling at this point.

-I remember very shortly after

Robert's father
hired an excellent trial lawyer.

-Not guilty.

-Jack Litman. Wow.

Jack was one of the best around.

I think he was
a brilliant lawyer,

and Chambers was very lucky
to have him, indeed.

-Chambers remains behind bars
at Rikers Island.

His attorney says he may use
the insanity defense.

-An insanity plea
an option here?

-It's always an option,
but right now the plea

is not guilty,
and the defense says

that this was an unfortunate,
accidental killing.

Thanks a lot.

-Jack Litman
was one of the preeminent

criminal defense attorneys
at that time.

I had just left the District
Attorney's office,

and I took a position with Jack,

and I remembered
I got into the office,

and he said, "Oh,
we got retained on this case."

This was a challenging,
fascinating, high-profile case,

and he wanted it.

-Jack had a little extra edge,

dogged when he got on a case,
kind of relentless.

But the most striking thing
was that it didn't bother him

to attack victims of crime.

-If you're not zealous
in representing your client,

then you shouldn't be
in a courtroom.

-Well, now, what --
what does "zealous" mean?

-Zealous means that you do
everything you can

within the bounds of law
to represent your client.

-If he could dirty up
the reputation of the victim,

he would do so,

and he would do it as far
as he could get away with it.

He would go right to the edge.

-Mr. Litman, first of all, um,

I heard some reports
in the newspaper

that said that he had confessed
to some degree.

-He made statements that
indicated, among other things,

that there seemed to be advances
by Jennifer Levin

and that a series of events,
sexual and otherwise,

led to this --
uh, to this tragedy.

[Car horn honks,
sirens wail in distance ]

-I'll never forget it.

Saracco said to me,
"Did you see the paper?"

I said, "No."

He said, "Well, do yourself
a favor, go buy

The Daily News or The Post.

The headlines are "Rough sex."

-Chambers claims she forced him
into a sexual encounter

that got rough, hurting him.

-Could this have happened
during rough sex?

"Rough sex?

I never heard of it,
but tell me more."

-Lurid press accounts
have suggested

Chambers was the victim
forced into sex.

-There wasn't, I don't think,
a person --

certainly in New York,
and maybe the country --

that weren't reading
those headlines.

I mean, they were planted
for a reason.

They were planted
by Jack Litman.

-She was attempting
to perform some sexual activity,

which he asked her to desist
from -- from doing.

And when she didn't,
uh, this tragedy ensued.

-Did she really hurt him,

and he didn't realize
his strength during rough sex?

Was this an accident?

-Jack Litman was
extremely dangerous.

He was very smooth,
he was very bright.

He had absolutely no mercy
for Jennifer.

It was all his client
and his client was innocent.

-Jack Litman had flipped
the story

saying that it was an accident
and was taking it

out of a murder charge
down to an accidental death.

It was so shocking.

The world of the case
was twisting

and turning upside down.

-One thing is clear --
The exact nature of what was

going on, uh, between Robert
and Jennifer Levin,

uh, that night, uh, will have
to be explored later at a trial.

It really is.

♪♪

obert Chambers told police
that the victim,

18-year-old Jennifer Levin,
was really to blame,

that she attacked him during
a predawn sexual encounter

in New York Central Park.

-People tend to frown
on tabloid newspapers,

however, the New York Post
circulation was 1,060,000.

I was named in Newsweek
as "Mr. Blood and Guts"

and not at all ashamed of
that title, not ashamed at all.

-By all accounts,
Robert Chambers

was a proper prep school boy,
brought up in an environment

of what some might call
an ivory tower.

-Robert Chambers,
the handsome preppy --

-The preppy murder --
-The preppy murder --

-Preppy murder --
-Preppy murder --

-Preppy murder --

-And all of a sudden,
it's the preppy murder case.

-It's a frenzy --
It's a feeding frenzy, you know,

and the press just keeps

throwing that log on the fire
and people keep buying it.

-He didn't do it.

-On the block where Chambers
lives with his mother,

90th Street between
Fifth and Madison Avenues,

his neighbors described
the defendant as a gentleman.

-He is the nicest --
He's friendly.

He just wo-- I just can't see
him doing anything like that.

-He was always
a very kind person.

-The media kind of,
almost weirdly, were on, like,

Team Robert Chambers,
even though he'd killed her.

-Robert Chambers --
because he was white,

lived on the Upper East Side,
and because he was drop-dead

handsome --
was getting special treatment.

-This must have been
an accident,

because he was too good-looking
to be violent.

-Amongst the youngsters here
at York Prep

who knew Robert Chambers,

there is a feeling
of shock and disbelief.

-Oh, I think every girl
in this school

had a crush on him, you know.

People would drool when he
walked down the block, you know,

and then the guys just like --

I mean,
he's like the perfect guy.

-I-I just couldn't believe it.

Rob and my boyfriend, Spencer,
were the best of friends,

and the three of us
would always hang out.

You walk into a room,
and here's,

like, this super-handsome,
six-feet-tall, chiseled jawbone,

piercing blue eyes
and black hair

and he just made heads turn.

He was, like, the pied piper,
and all the girls would just be,

like, following along.

I didn't believe
it was possible.

-A friend called and said,
"Oh, my God,

they arrested Robert Chambers,"
and it was shocking.

He was a grade behind me
in high school.

I had a good friendship
with Robert,

and he had a group
of three or four friends,

and I had a group
of three or friends,

and we would all hang out
a lot on the weekends.

He was a really
kind of quiet guy.

There was nothing aggressive
about him.

It certainly didn't feel like it
fit his character.

None of it made any sense to me.
-I mean, to be honest,

I never ever saw Robert,
uh, violent,

or I never saw him
lose his temper, even.

You wanted to think it was
a horrible mistake or accident.

It's really hard to fathom
that happening.

-I went to the day school,

which was on 90th Street
between Fifth and Madison.

Robert lived across the street
from the day school,

so we would go to his house,

and so that's when I started
to get to know Robert,

and we were friends --
which is slightly weird,

because my best friend
was Jennifer Levin,

so I knew both of them.

I remember her saying to me,
"I want to meet Robert."

I had known him for six or seven
years at that point.

Why she wanted to meet him?

She must have seen him
at Dorrian's or around.

And I was like, "Sure.
I can do that."

[Vocalizing softly]

So, this is a diary from 1986.

It says here, "February 14th,
Carla's champagne party."

There you go --
"Call Robert C."

Here's his phone number.

And that was to make the date

so that he would come to Carla's
champagne birthday party

so he could meet Jen.
[Lively conversations]

It was Valentine's Day.

I remember introducing them
right away.

And I remember
Jennifer talking to him.

He's a very stoic,
non-communicative guy.

But you could see that she was
trying to engage him.

She was being flirtatious.

I remember them having
a good time

but all of us having
a good time together.

I remember speaking to Jen
in June and she said,

"I've seen Robert four
or five times,

and we've had a really
nice time together,

and I really like him."

And I was like, "That's great.
I'm so psyched for you."

What I took by that was it meant
that they were sexually active,

and that she liked him.
[Static]

-Um, I...

We didn't really have --

She felt it was more special
than I did.

I had sex with her three times,

twice at
two different friends' house

and once on a roof.

-That summer I went away,

so I was kind of out
of the picture for two months,

which is a big deal at that age.

And when I got back, I spoke
to Jen on the phone immediately,

and I was like,
"Oh, I miss you so much.

I can't believe it. I haven't
spoken to you in so long."

She's like, "Yeah.
Robert and I,

we've been having
a really nice time together.

We've been dating and seeing
each other all summer."

That was it.

-No, not at all.

I w-- I was always nice to her.

I was just always nice to her,
'cause we got along.

She's very easy to talk to.

She's a really nice girl.

-Literally -- literally --

10 days after I spoke to Jen
on the phone,

my mother calls me,

and she says,
"Jess, Jennifer has been killed.

Jennifer Levin is dead."

And I literally lose it.

Like, I just don't even know
what that means.

This person who you had
just spoken on the phone with,

who was your best friend
was killed?

He killed her.

He (no audio) killed her.

Why?

Robert said Jennifer was
this sort of aggressor

and this attacker.

It's not accurate.

The narrative that is out there
about her life

and who she was
is not accurate.

And that's why I'm here
talking to you,

and that's why it means
so much to me.

People need to find out
the truth about Jennifer,

who this person
Jennifer Levin was.

Why did he kill her?

What happened between them?

♪♪

♪♪

-There were 1,000 people there,

and it was so overwhelming.

-I didn't believe she was dead
until I saw her in the casket.

In fact, I wanted
an open casket,

which we don't normally
have in the Jewish religion,

so that I could be sure
that that was my sister.

-I leaned in
to kiss her forehead,

but it didn't look like Jen.

[Voice breaking] That was it.

She wasn't there.

-When something like this
happens to somebody you know,

I mean,
especially somebody like her --

-This child
was a blessing to life.

She will be life forever.
Thank you.

-If you knew Jennifer
and you knew Robert,

you basically wouldn't think
this would happen,

but it did, and it's a shame.

It really is.

-He hurt her and he killed her,

and it was a terrible way
to die,

and she died very violently,

and that's just
an awful way to die.

-They're hounding everybody.
-Trying to make a case --

-It's -- They're just --
They're building a case

to make him look like
he's innocent, and he's not.

-He's not.
-He's not. He killed her.

There's no accident.
-How do you know that?

-How do I know that?
-He said he did.

-He said he did.
It's no accident.

Just stop.
What are you doing?

-Just stop. Come on.

[Static]

-In August of 1986,

I was in my office,

and my secretary --

one of the first things
he handed me

was a piece of paper
in his writing.

It said Jack Litman stopped by,
and that Jack's comment was

"You ought to take this case.

We could have such
a good time together."

It was one of the most shocking

and just inappropriate
expressions I'd ever seen.

Shortly after that,

Bob Morgenthau,
the District Attorney,

came to me
and expressed his concern

about the confession on tape.

[Static]

Because Steve Saracco
was the one

that took
the Chambers statement,

who was asking
the questions on video,

Steve was gonna have to be
a witness in the case,

so that made Morgenthau think
that perhaps this was the time

to take him off
the case as the prosecutor.

Mr. Morgenthau said
it would make a statement

to have a woman prosecutor
as my lead to the community.

"I really think you should
prosecute this case."

-I got notified that the case
was no longer going to be mine,

and to say that I was upset --

You could say that.
[Chuckles]

To say that I was real upset --

You could say that, too.

To say that I'm still upset
33 years later --

I'm half-Italian.

Of course I'm still upset.

I mean, the first thing,

she had never
tried a homicide before.

-When I got to the D.A.'s office
out of law school in 1972,

the times were very different.

There were 180 lawyers
on the staff.

Seven of those lawyers
were women.

No woman had ever tried
a murder case in that office.

There was the idea that this
work was too tawdry for a woman.

Leslie Snyder was
the first woman

allowed to handle homicides,
and I was the second.

I remember as vividly as
if it were yesterday

meeting with the Levins.

I did not instill confidence
in the Levins

because I was so nervous.

I was running my fingers
through my hair.

-She had this habit
of doing this,

which, you know,
I love to this day,

because it showed me that she's
emotionally involved in this.

She was upset over the case,

over the way
it was being portrayed,

over the attack
of the defense attorney.

We felt lucky that we had Linda.

-I said to the Levins
I'm going to fight

this fight for them
and for Jennifer.

I want everyone to know that
this is a young woman

whose whole life
was on the horizon ahead

and that she had
everything to live for.

-Detectives learned she had
been with Chambers

in Dorrian's Restaurant,
a so-called "preppy hangout"

at Second Avenue at 84th Street
in Manhattan.

-This is a tale of sex
and violence

among privileged teenagers

on the Upper East Side
of Manhattan.

Magee Hickey, "News 4."

Back to you, Sue.

I was the only female reporter
in the news room

who was "a preppy" from the
Upper East Side at that point --

60th to 96th Street,
Fifth Avenue to the East River.

It was a very rarified,
preppy little world.

We were all very well off.

"What does your father do?"
"Oh, I don't know.

Uh, you know, five generations
back someone

made some money," you know?

If you have to ask "What does
your father do?"

then you're not a preppy,
you know what I mean?

It's just a whole other world.

-I was struck when I started
meeting

some of these young people

that their parents had no idea
where they were,

and some of the girls
were as young as 16 --

16, 17.

Jennifer Levin was 18.

Their parents went to Europe,

their parents were out
in the Hamptons,

their parents didn't know
if they were sleeping over

at a friend's house or whatever.

It was just a world
that was totally foreign to me.

-What did we learn
about these young kids?

Did they live a promiscuous
lifestyle?

It raised a lot
of questions like,

"What exactly happened that
night at Dorrian's Red Hand bar?

-I got to Dorrian's late.
I got there at about 11:30.

-During the confession,
Robert told us

he was in Dorrian's

and then Jennifer came in
and started bugging him.

We have to find out more
about what happened.

What happened at Dorrian's
the night of Jennifer's death?

♪♪

-Mike Sheehan and I,
we talked to everyone

who would talk to us,

trying to put together the story
of the events of the night

at Dorrian's --
very difficult.

-It -- It took us
quite some time to figure out,

but they eventually painted
the picture of what happened.

-On August 26, 1986,

it was a very happy night.

There was a big crowd
at Dorrian's.

These kids were about to go off
to college,

and it was one of
the last nights

they were going to be together.

Jennifer was going to be going
off to college a week later.

She was so excited.

Jennifer was gonna be spending
the night

at the home
of her friend Alex LaGatta.

Alex LaGatta had left Dorrian's

with a guy
she was interested in.

So Jennifer was alone.

According to
Chambers' statement,

he had gone
to Dorrian's that night

with an expectation of meeting
a girl he'd been dating.

-Last night I was supposed
to meet a girl named Alex Kapp.

-Robert and I were dating,

and it was pretty
jaw-dropping for me.

You know, I was 16,

and he's this extraordinarily
handsome older guy.

He was 19.
That was a big deal.

That night
he said he'd meet me at 8:00,

but he was late, really late --

8:00, 8:30, 9:00, 9:30,
10:00, 10:30,

and I think about 10:30 or 11:00
he finally showed up.

And he sort of looked at me
and walked right past me,

at which point I was now
in just -- in a fury.

-I got to Dorrian's late.
I got there at about 11:30.

I was hanging out
with my friends.

And then Jennifer came over
and said that she wanted to talk

to me about something important,
so I said, "Okay."

-Jennifer had talked to her
friends many times

about previously having
had a sexual encounter

with him that was consensual.

She had said to two of her
best friends that it was,

"The best sex I'd ever had."

-But then Alex Kapp,
the girl I was supposed to meet,

that I haven't talk
to all night came over.

-I don't know what possessed me.

I had some condoms.

I walked up to him, and I said,
"You know what" --

super dramatic --
"use these with someone else,

'cause you're not gonna get
the chance to use 'em with me!"

And I threw it in his face.

The condoms went everywhere,
landed in his lap,

all over the floor.

[Laughter]

Everybody was laughing at him,

which he did not like.

-Alex started yelling at me
in front of everybody.

That I stood her up,
that I didn't meet her on time,

that I didn't come over
and talk to her.

And while this was going on,
Jennifer was laughing at me.

Yeah, because she asked me
to talk to her,

and then I'm getting in trouble,
and she's laughing at me,

and also the fact that the girl
I'm supposed to meet,

Alex, the girl I like,
is yelling at me

in front of everybody,
so it was embarrassing.

-He was mad.
He was really mad.

I-I embarrassed him.

So he did not like that at all.

I stayed for a bit after,

but I don't think
we spoke again.

-So, Alex left, and then
I walked to the bar

'cause I was all pissed off now.

-Well, "A", myself, 'cause
I ended up standing Alex up

and, "B," Jennifer 'cause
she's just laughing at me.

-According to
Chambers' statement,

Robert Chambers held
Jennifer responsible.

He was angry that she had
come on to him in the bar,

that she had flirted with him.

-Jack Litman and I interviewed
friends of Jennifer Levin,

and we had about
a dozen signed statements

from Jennifer Levin's friends
about things

that they saw on that evening

or things that they knew
about the relationship.

And they were consistent with
Robert's videotaped statement,

that she left with him,
they went to Central Park,

and that she wanted
to be intimate with him.

That helped to support, um,
our -- our defense,

that during rough sex

he wound up accidentally
killing Jennifer Levin.

-According to Jack Litman,
Jennifer was a "bad girl."

What other kind of girl
would go into Central Park

wanting a sexual encounter
with a guy?

Jennifer Levin was being blamed
for causing her own death.

-You can characterize it
as "blame the victim" defense,

you can characterize
it however you want.

But we were going on
what happened that evening.

Jennifer Levin's actions were,
in fact,

corroborated by her friends.

Jack Litman had a job to do.

He said, "What I'm doing
is defending my client."

People didn't like it.

Our response to that would be,

"Well, we didn't make this up."

-Jennifer Levin seemed to be
following Robert Chambers

around that night.

It appears that he attempted
to rebuff her

and perhaps ask her
to stop some sexual activity

she was performing.

-Jack Litman --
I wound up hating him

as much
as I hated Robert Chambers.

I did.

Because I saw the way
he operated,

and he was brutal.

-Litman was really
a very dangerous adversary.

I was afraid that Robert would
get away with this crime.

The Levins really put
all their trust in me,

and I really didn't
want to fail them.

-Now, how could something
like this have happened

at 4:30 in the morning
and in the park --

Were you surprised
about all that?

-I know that Jennifer
went out at night

and she stayed out late,
but it was her last week here,

she wanted to do
all the partying here,

say goodbye to her friends,

and that's really it.

I mean, I'm --

I don't know think she went
voluntary into the Park.

-You know, when we first heard
that Jennifer made it known

that she wanted to have sex
with Robert,

I didn't know what to think.

I mean, you know, back then
it was still a little squeamish,

and you didn't hear about women

talking about wanting to
have sex with someone.

With Jennifer,
all we were painted

was this picture
of a promiscuous girl.

Could it have been
that she "asked for it"?

-The expression
"blame the victim"

just exploded in this case.

-You just have to use
your common sense.

Obviously she's too young
to use her own.

-The media made it
very black and white.

You knew who the bad guy was,

and
you knew who the bad girl was.

-That whole, like,
"she asked for it" thing,

when she started
to get slut shamed

for wearing a short skirt.

Even my little 16-year-old self
was like, "This is not right."

It was terrible.

-The way that it was made out
to be was as if, you know,

she just met this guy at a bar,

and, you know, she went to
Central Park with him at night.

No, she would never have done
anything like that.

She knew him,
and she trusted him.

-When I saw the headlines
of what happened to Jennifer

and the sort of tabloid
kind of horror of it,

it sounds like she's a slut.

Yeah, so I'm -- I'm sure she was
sleeping with multiple people.

But, you know what?

She's a teenager
playing the field.

[Chuckles]
She's 18 years old.

Believe me, I'm sure
Robert Chambers was sleeping

with anybody he could get.

I'm sure he had sex with
multiple woman at that time.

Well, he's a guy.
Right?

When you say that about a woman,
it suddenly implies

that there's something
wrong with her.

Like, this is why we're here,
right?

I mean, this is honestly
what we need to deal with here.

♪♪

-There were definitely moments
when the Levins and I

thought we were alone against
Jack Litman and the world.

The problem that we had was
that all anyone could talk about

was how good looking
Robert Chambers was.

It so played into his version
of the events

that this must
have been an accident,

because nobody
who's that good looking

would have to hurt a girl
who was with him.

We needed to get past
the veneer of his face.

We needed to change public
opinion about Robert Chambers.

-Linda said to me, "We have
to find out more about Robert."

I said, "I'm here.
I'm here for you.

Let's -- Let's buckle up
our seats and let's get going."

The greatest advantage we had
was Robert Chambers'

overstuffed telephone book,
if you will,

that Chambers had with him
when he was arrested.

The very first thing I did when
I got my hands on that Filofax

is I copied the entire thing.

We had all of these different
people,

and he kept their names
and addresses and phone numbers,

and they were immensely helpful
in building a profile

of who this kid is.

-And I made a rule with Sheehan

that we would not leave
my office for the night

unless we had made
three phone calls

to reach three people
to see what they knew,

what they could tell us
about him.

What I found out shocked me.

I heard over and over again
from people

I was trying to interview

"I have information
about his background

that you should know."

It stopped me in my tracks.

-I was just totally,
totally shocked this guy

was, you know, no altar boy.

What kind of a monster are you?

-We had to take off that mask.

If people knew the truth,
we could destroy

the whole picture