Original subtitles

-Jury selection for the trial of Robert Chambers

was scheduled to begin today.

-This was one of the most high-profile trials

in New York history.

It just exploded.

It was like a tsunami.

-In the coming weeks, the agony for both families

will undoubtedly increase.

-I wasn't even thinking I could go to the trial.

-Jack Litman planted a seed in the media

that Robert Chambers was a devout Irish Catholic,

that Jennifer Levin was fast and loose.

-By dragging it out, the word "sex diary" became

as well-known to the public as "rough sex."

Judge Bell stunned us by saying DNA isn't reliable.

-Whatever we came up with

was not allowed into the court.

Were we frustrated? Totally!

-We did not have a clear motive.

We were working from nothing.

♪♪

♪♪

-I never really had an understanding

of Robert Chambers.

Why did he kill her?

Why? Why did this happen?

We have to look for answers.

So, then when the Preppy Murder trial starts,

I think, "Ah! Finally!"

-The case known as the Preppy Murder trial

began 19 months ago

when the body of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin was found

behind the Metropolitan Museum in Central Park.

-It was a sweltering August morning

a year and a half ago.

Jennifer Levin's life ended violently.

-The Robert Chambers murder trial officially began today.

This trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.

-Hey, hey, hey! [Indistinct talking]

-Are you guilty of murder?

-I couldn't believe the amount of press

that was at this trial,

from all over the world.

[Camera shutters click]

-The 6'4" 20-year-old arrived

with his lawyer, Jack Litman.

Present in the courtroom were his parents

and, at least, two young friends.

-There's been some question of how the Chambers family afforded

to retain a fancy lawyer like Jack Litman.

My understanding is that whatever the Chambers family

was able to do for legal fees, Jack accepted.

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

and he wanted it.

-Through much of today, Ellen Levin, Jennifer's mother,

held the hand of her other daughter.

-It was an amazingly tense time for us.

It's bad enough to lose somebody to a violent crime,

but then it's that much worse

to go through a horrible trial.

♪♪

-We were suddenly thrust into being like, in a sick way,

some kind of celebrities, you know?

Like, "There's the mother!

There's the father! There's the sister!"

We couldn't grieve.

-Jennifer's father, Steve,

cried when his daughter's death

was recounted by prosecutor Linda Fairstein.

-I was keenly aware that this was the biggest case

of its kind in the city

and was being played out on the national stage.

I was nervous and anxious about the outcome

and how the evidence will unfold.

I had everybody's expectations to uphold.

-The Levin and Chambers families

sat quietly on separate sides of the courtroom

as Assistant District Attorney Linda Fairstein described

the early morning hours of August 26, 1986.

-She began her remarks by saying,

"Jennifer Levin is dead, but don't lose sight of the fact

there is only one victim in this case."

-One of the first pieces of evidence that I introduced

was the photograph of Jennifer Levin at Dorrian's,

and the most striking thing is,

her long, pretty neck

was completely blemish-free.

There wasn't a mark on it.

I put it on an easel,

and I tried to keep this picture

in front of that jury.

I needed Jennifer to become alive to that jury

for them to see her as the loving daughter,

great student, lots of friends,

living, vibrant, happy --

not just the dead girl in the courtroom.

-In a dramatic whisper, Fairstein ended

her opening statement, saying to the jury,

"Don't make the same mistake Jennifer Levin did.

Don't trust this defendant."

-Linda Fairstein blew up pictures of Jennifer Levin

with her friends.

It did cause a lot of emotion.

♪♪

I did spend time looking at Robert,

trying to see what was going on in his mind.

He didn't show any emotion.

He just sat there with his hands folded on the table

and just staring right ahead.

-There was just this...

vacant stare.

Is there some sort of drug problem there?

I don't know.

I couldn't understand why people

found him so attractive,

because there seemed to be something wrong.

-I just felt that I had to contain myself

from hurting him.

It was a terrible atmosphere.

♪♪

-The first witness to be called is expected to be the bicyclist

who discovered Jennifer Levin's body

in Central Park.

-Clearly, I did not want to be in the newspapers.

I didn't want to be an object of the press.

So, I asked if we could go in some way

that I wouldn't be in front of all the cameras.

They took me to a back elevator.

And when I got on the elevator,

Robert Chambers was probably less than a foot away from me...

-Oh, no. [Laughter]

-...which I found incredibly disturbing.

♪♪

That day that I found Jennifer Levin

changed the trajectory of my life.

♪♪

Trauma resonates with you.

I still felt a kindred connection to her.

[Voice breaking] Still --

I'm sorry.

[Sniffles]

It still sticks with me.

♪♪

-On cross-examination, defense attorney

Jack Litman questioned Reilly.

"Are you sure of the position of the body?"

-When Jack Litman approached me,

he said to me,

"How far were you from Jennifer Levin?"

And I said, "Well, I'm not really very good with feet."

He says, "But you play golf.

Don't you know the difference between a 12-foot putt

and like a 3-foot putt?"

Why does he know I play golf, you know?

There was an air about him of self-confidence,

but it bordered on obnoxious.

That's how he ran.

-When Jack came on,

everybody whispered, "Here comes the show."

And that's what it was.

-Boy, oh, boy, was he mesmerizing.

The guy was so charismatic, smart,

and Jack had a number of antics up his sleeve.

I remember Jack Litman really went after

the investigators, the detectives in the case.

-He tried to say that the cops did a very sloppy job.

I testified that when I examined Jennifer's body,

I noticed that her teeth

were loose in her mouth,

probably because of the blows she sustained to the face.

"Well, why didn't the medical examiner

say she had loose teeth?"

I said, "I don't know. I'm not a medical doctor."

He challenged everything, you know --

everything I testified to.

Jack Litman thinks on his feet.

[Camera shutters click]

-Jack Litman tried his best to make him look like somebody

who went on the scene, who bungled the evidence.

-By the time we got finished

with the detectives and the police officers,

we were able to prove

that the crime scene was totally destroyed

by the professionals who were supposed to preserve it.

-Yeah, we thought the cops really screwed up.

We really made fun of the cops.

One didn't know what the other one was doing.

I was not impressed at all.

♪♪

-Jack was trying to control the courtroom,

and I really was afraid

the Levin family might never get justice for Jennifer.

But there was no doubt that we had the truth on our side.

I was not gonna let Jack win this case.

♪♪

-Big trials come and go in New York City.

Once in a while, one of them gets national attention.

That's what happened with the Chambers case.

-Robert Chambers says he broke his hand...

-The Preppy Murder trial --

I mean, it was a big, big story.

It was the top of the newscast

every single night.

It was the front page

of every newspaper in town.

♪♪

-Every day, by the time we got to the courthouse,

there was a big crowd and cameras,

and they'd have to part

in order for you to have access.

You get used to it, quite frankly.

That's just your new normal.

[Indistinct talking]

-One of the challenges was that

Linda was trying to set the scene in Dorrian's.

It began as a wonderful night,

getting ready to go to college,

last hurrah.

-But one of the challenges we faced was

Jennifer's friends' testimony.

With almost all of the kids that I had to put on the stand,

it was really a two-edged sword.

I was trying to prove that she would not do

anything mean to him, and, therefore,

there was no way to keep out

that she had had sex with him before.

-So, when Jennifer Levin's friends started to testify,

through cross-examination, we were able to bring out facts

that helped to support our -- our defense.

This was not a lack of consent.

-So, she wanted sex. What's the big deal?

Is she not allowed to have sex?

Well, no, she isn't,

'cause she's a woman, right?

I mean, that's the message.

She was on trial for wanting to have sex.

♪♪

-Her friends, all they wanted to do

is tell the real story --

who their friend was, how wonderful she was.

Instead, their words were twisted around

to make it sound like,

"Yeah, oh, we were par-- You know, we like to party."

It wasn't just an attack on Jennifer.

It was an attack on her lifestyle,

on her personality, on her morals.

-She was a wholesome kid, and she was painted to be,

you know, this kind of whore.

-That, to me, is one of the biggest crimes

of what Jack Litman did to her and to her memory.

-Jennifer Levin's mother cried uncontrollably

and left the courtroom.

-So much emotion being there,

but whether I was alone

or whether somebody came with me,

I was there every day...

[Camera shutters click]

...because I realized...

this is the last piece of business I can do

for my daughter.

♪♪

-My heart would just break every day for Ellen Levin.

I mean, she was going through the worst time of her life,

and having to relive the death of her daughter

was just terrible...

whereas I never got to know Phyllis Chambers.

-His mother, Phyllis, entered earlier.

She was clutching a book entitled "The Gift of Hope."

-The only time I had contact with his mother,

Phyllis Chambers,

was when she came over to me with a book.

And she said, "I'm so sorry.

Maybe this will help."

It was her only attempt to, I guess, apologize,

and I wasn't receptive.

I-I wasn't nasty.

I just took the book, walked away,

and then I may have just thrown it in the garbage.

-Robert Chambers' parents left the criminal courthouse today.

While a tearful and distraught Mrs. Chambers

sought the comfort of friends,

her husband, Robert Sr.,

maintained a silent calm.

-It was fascinating because

not only did Robert have his parents with him,

but Robert Chambers would come

with a very pretty young girl.

-Her name was Shawn Kovell.

And she was Robert Chambers' girlfriend.

I don't know how far back they went,

but, certainly during the trial, they were boyfriend-girlfriend.

-Yeah, we knew about her.

Actually, I had no thoughts other than,

she must be out of her mind.

It's not a wise choice.

She should get a life.

-I wasn't sure whether it was Jack Litman encouraging Robert

to bring a woman with him every day to court

so that he seemed safe,

but Shawn seemed very smitten,

and so it kind of softened

who Robert Chambers might be.

-Robert Chambers -- he had his supporters

on one side of the courtroom,

and that included the clergy.

The church was there to support him.

-It bothered me during the trial

that there was this sense that the Catholic church is

there to help Robert Chambers.

It was a dangerous place for the Catholic church to be.

Why are they taking sides here?

-This was all part of Jack Litman's orchestration.

To the public, it looked like he was

a young, clean,

good Catholic boy.

-For one hour, late this afternoon,

the jury watched TV monitors

and listened as Chambers told police

that Jennifer Levin freaked out and went crazy.

-I started to say, "Stop it, stop it, it hurts,"

and she just kind of laughed in a weird way.

It was, like, more like a cackle or something.

And she, like, sat on my face,

and then she dug her nails into my chest.

-When you look at that hour-long videotape,

do you think it's all lies from Robert Chambers?

-I think Robert Chambers is a liar.

I think everything in that videotape is a lie.

-Do you believe Robert Chambers

took her to the park to kill her?

-I don't know that he took her to the park to kill her,

but I know he -- that they went into the park

and what happened was, he killed her.

-Assistant District Attorney Linda Fairstein

called Chambers' videotaped statement

that he had accidentally killed Levin during rough sex

a "complete fiction

to make Jennifer look wild or kinky or sexually unusual."

-The way Jack Litman used this videotape,

it made it seem like she was the aggressor.

She wanted the sex. He wasn't interested.

She was the one to blame.

-The blame-the-victim tactics were suddenly so obvious.

It was almost evil.

[Camera shutters click]

-We knew that Jack Litman was preparing Robert Chambers

to testify.

If Robert Chambers took the stand,

I could finally show the jury

he was not the choirboy

that Litman painted him to be.

♪♪

-Everybody was kind of wondering if Robert Chambers

would be called to the stand,

and everybody couldn't wait to find out why he killed her.

-But one of the most shocking moments for me

was that Jack did not have Robert Chambers testify.

That was one of the most disappointing moments

in the trial for me because I thought

we would have a chance to expose his sociopathy,

his ability to lie, and his life of crime.

I imagine that Jack was appalled

when he saw the number of crimes and bad acts

that we could prove.

-We built this entire criminal background

of Robert Chambers

in case he took the stand.

We couldn't use it.

Was it frustrating for us? Absolutely!

-It would have made a huge difference,

I think, to the jurors.

-The Levin family has not been in court

to hear the medical testimony.

-I did not want the Levins in the courtroom the day

that the medical examiner was going to go through the autopsy

because to have people who loved her listen to that

is beyond imaginable.

We knew that the death was asphyxial.

That was clear.

So, how that happened was much more open to interpretation.

-There were a lot of witnesses

that Jack Litman called to the stand,

including medical examiners who backed up Robert Chambers.

-A doctor from LA named Ronald Kornblum testified

about the chokehold technique,

that it had been a single pull,

as Chambers had described in the video,

and Jennifer flipped over and never moved again.

-The marks on the neck were presented by competing experts.

One would say one thing,

the other one would say another thing,

so you're back in the middle,

like, "Who do you believe?"

-But because of some overwhelming accident...

-Litman did everything in his power

to confuse the jury.

-He would call a witness up, like a doctor,

and show us X-rays.

Nobody can read X-rays.

I wasn't taught to read an X-ray,

and he was more or less trying to, uh...

baffle us.

-With all the scientific testimony back and forth,

it just got so muddled.

-The relationship between Jack Litman and Linda Fairstein

had kind of broken down

to the extent that they kind of

weren't talking to each other.

Jack had a penchant for pushing Linda's buttons.

He could be very irritating.

-The two of them were fighting constantly.

There were a lot of sidebars that bored the heck out of us.

-Defense attorney Jack Litman

will have his last chance tomorrow

to get his message to the jury

that Jennifer Levin died accidentally

during rough sex.

And the prosecutor, Linda Fairstein,

will also try to convince them it was murder.

-I needed the jury to understand that this took minutes,

that Robert Chambers, in those three to five minutes,

formed and executed the intent

to kill Jennifer Levin.

He murdered her.

That was intentional.

-What's it been like for you

the last 11 weeks, being in this courtroom?

-Torture. Sheer torture.

-How has this, uh, changed your --

your life since the day she died?

-That's a very complicated question to answer,

but, for sure, my life will never be the same

Um...

And I'd rather not comment anymore.

Thank you very much. -Thank you.

-We didn't get a chance to grieve or mourn...

at all, so...

[Camera shutters click]

-The jury is expected to begin deliberations

today in New York

in the New York Preppy Murder case.

-We were actually looking forward to deliberations,

thinking we can get this thing over with.

-She's flipping backwards? -She came over this way

and landed right there, right next to the tree.

-In the jury room, when we watched the confession,

and we watched it many times,

I don't think anybody in that room

actually believed the confession.

When he said, "She took advantage of me,"

you're 6'4".

Get over it. Be a man.

Nobody can take advantage of you.

Nobody believed that.

-I was not worried for the first three or four days

of jury deliberations.

I felt there was so much evidence.

-We thought this was a home run,

and then we waited, uh, for days.

-By the fifth day,

everybody in my office was worried.

It was beginning to be too long.

-The jury seems to be struggling

with the question of whether Robert Chambers

intentionally or accidentally killed Jennifer Levin.

-The sticking point was intent.

We had to reach a decision,

guilty or not guilty, on the first charge,

which was Murder II.

We had to decide whether he intentionally killed her

or was it an accident?

Did he get angry and -- and, you know,

lose his mind and hit her and all that?

That's a possibility, but that doesn't mean

he intended to kill her.

That's a tough call.

That's a really tough call.

There were eight people who voted guilty

on the first charge, which means intent.

There were four people who voted not guilty,

which means there was no intent there.

We were stuck at 8-4.

Unless we all agreed,

we were dead in the water right there.

-They were deciding for a very long time,

and we understood that that's a bad sign --

very bad.

-We would go back and forth, you know, really,

from, like, "How could they not convict him right away?"

to "Eesh. Did -- Did -- Did Litman do enough damage?"

-I remember being sequestered.

So, fine. One overnight is not a big deal.

Two overnights we can live with.

When it came into seven, eight, nine, you know,

everybody wanted out.

One juror faked a heart attack.

Some of the women were crying.

They just couldn't take it anymore.

You know, one of the jurors locked himself in a refrigerator

'cause I wanted to kill him.

I did. He was annoying.

I was very angry at the fact

that we couldn't reach a decision.

-Nine days of jury deliberations,

and yet the jury could not come to a unanimous decision

beyond a reasonable doubt

as to what had happened.

The jury was really deadlocked.

-Is there a just punishment for Chambers?

-I hope so.

I mean, I'm --

I'm really looking to see

that Chambers gets punished.

-What would you like to see happen?

-I'd like to see him get the max.

He can't take a life

and not get the max.

-Linda called me, and she said, "Uh, listen,

I'm really worried about this jury.

I think we have a major problem."

[Crowd shouting]

♪♪

-From our point of view on the defense,

we were under a lot of pressure

because the jury appeared deadlocked.

We have to do something now.

I mean, this jury is not coming up with a verdict.

So, I called Linda Fairstein,

and I asked her if we could sit down and talk about a plea,

because a hung jury would not look very good for them, either.

When I went to her office,

the New York Post

was on the desk.

There was a picture of me and Robert Chambers

on the front page that said, "Plea deal in the works.

Chambers shocker."

And I said, "I'm here doing this,"

and, to this day,

I don't know how -- how that happened.

-Jack Litman offered to plead guilty to manslaughter

in the first degree,

which did not require intent.

But Robert had to admit

that he caused the death of Jennifer Levin.

♪♪

-Maybe 40 minutes,

we had the broad outlines of a deal.

-Linda brought us into her office

to let us know what was put on the table.

-One of the hardest conversations I'd ever had

was to tell the Levins.

-She gave us the ultimatum,

and it's, "Accept the plea-bargain

or he is out again until the next trial,

which could be two years."

We felt totally cheated.

But we knew that we could not go through this again.

[Static]

♪♪

-There was a big press conference.

The district attorney Morgenthau

was there with all the attorneys.

It was a big deal.

-The Manhattan district attorney

said he couldn't convict Chambers

on the circumstantial evidence.

-This office determined that the plea agreement

was in the interest of justice.

-I don't think that we could have withstood

another trial and the tensions

and problems that went on

for another year and a half.

It would have been too much for everyone concerned.

We weren't happy.

It was kind of a resignation.

♪♪

-New York City's so-called Preppy Murder trial

came to a dramatic

and unexpected end late today.

-It happened at just a few minutes after 5:00 this evening.

In a packed and hushed courtroom,

Robert Chambers pleaded guilty

to the charge of first-degree manslaughter.

He's going to be sentenced on April 15th

to 5 to 15 years in prison.

-There was very much a sense of,

"Hmm. Manslaughter?

It was a murder trial.

5 to 15?

Is that what Jennifer Levin's life was worth?"

-It was controversial at the time.

Many people criticized it for being --

for being too -- too light.

-Do you think 5 to 15 years in prison

is enough for killing someone?

-Honestly, no, but, I mean,

that's the justice system of today.

-I tell you, he should have gotten more than 5 to 15.

I think he should get life or worse.

-You mean that's -- that's all that --

that he got?

If it was my daughter, I sure as heck would feel

that he should be given the electric chair.

-They called us in the jury room and says,

"This case has been resolved,"

and that's all we heard.

We found out later that there was a plea-bargain.

-I still to this day

am horrified at the result.

I just can't believe that you could get away with murder.

-Actually, I bumped in to Judge Bell

probably 10, 15 years ago,

and the first thing he said to me is,

"Why couldn't you convict that kid?"

-The fact that Robert Chambers would be standing,

addressing the court one final time today,

brought a crush of media and spectators

to the courthouse.

-Today we came to -- to see the end of a trial,

a trial with no answers, a trial with no winners.

The Levin family have gone through hell...

because of my actions, and I am sorry.

-The statement that Robert Chambers made

at his sentence was his statement in his voice.

-I never wanted any of this to happen.

But her name will live on, not through memories

but by her family and her feelings.

And I wish to apologize to the family and to her friends

for all the trouble that they've gone through.

I've never wanted any of this to happen to anybody.

-I wanted to jump over the bench

'cause I wanted to smack him across the face,

because he was going like this.

It was as if, "I-I'll make this deal,

but don't believe a word that I say."

It was yet another insult to our family.

There was no sign of remorse that I ever saw.

-He said nothing in the courtroom today.

-Not even --

-He said nothing in the courtroom today.

-You don't believe he's remorseful?

-He said nothing.

It didn't come from here, it came from here --

a memory, memorized.

-It was not a fulfilling verdict.

It was like, "Oh, okay. We got an ending."

But not the ending that a lot of people wanted.

-Robert Chambers left Manhattan Criminal Court tonight

a guilty man.

-Chambers will spend one last night with his family

before surrendering to police.

-We worked out with the judge

that he was able to go to his home that night,

and then the next day,

he would start serving his sentence.

-And as he left the court building,

there was time for a quiet moment

between mother and son.

-He's allowed to go home

and spend the night with his mother?

It's just adding insult to injury.

It was ludicrous.

♪♪

-The next morning, Mike Sheehan

came to the Chambers' apartment with a bulletproof vest.

-And Robert said, "I don't think I need a vest."

I said, "No? Look down there."

[Crowd chanting "Justice for Jennifer!"]

-The Guardian Angels -- they were all running around

with their berets,

chanting and yelling in the streets.

I said, "It only takes one of them with a gun

to take a shot at you.

Put your vest on."

So, he put the vest on,

and he put an Irish sweater over it.

-At 10:00, the tall, handsome young man,

looking drawn and pale, was escorted out of his home

for what would be the last time in a long time.

-The crowd was so big that it moves you

in different directions, which is very scary.

We delivered him to the Department of Corrections

for him to begin serving his 5-to-15-year sentence.

♪♪

-We walked Robert to the cell.

He went in, and I heard him throwing up.

He threw up in the toilet.

Robert turned around,

and he said, "I'll never get used to the smell."

[Bars clink]

♪♪

-After the trial,

there was a reporter on "Current Affair"

who was a friend of mine,

and he had been contacted

by one of the girls

who palled around with Robert Chambers.

The girl told him that there was a tape.

My God.

This was worth a million bucks.

-Steve Dunleavy, a reporter from "Current Affair,"

called me, and he said, "There's a tape.

You gotta come see this tape."

So I ran to Channel 5, and he showed it to me...

and I said, "Jesus."

-Hello, everyone.

Welcome to a special edition of "A Current Affair."

We immediately put it on that night,

and all hell broke loose.

[Static]

On this tape,

we see a whole bevy

of young, very pretty girls.

And Shawn Kovell was there.

And there is Robert Chambers

in the middle of them.

He then picks up a doll,

and with this strange voice,

like out of a bad horror movie,

he picks it up

and says straight to camera...

-My name is --

Oops.

[Chuckles] -Stop!

-How did he think this was even funny?

-He's been charged with murder, I mean, and he's joking.

You know, "Oh," you know?

It's just -- It was just awful.

-That tape went on into infamy, you know?

I-I believe it definitely would have been a different verdict.

I mean, it really paints

a lousy picture of Robert Chambers.

-The optics of it were terrible.

Having said that, I thought it was such a reach

that they were trying to relate this somehow

to -- to Jennifer Levin.

It didn't really prove anything.

-For me, that's when he finally really showed

the public his true colors.

Finally, the whole world saw him for who he was.

♪♪

-Robert Chambers's sentence was 5 to 15 years.

He could have been out in five years on good behavior.

Instead, I think he broke every rule that there was.

I know that he was busted for drugs.

♪♪

He was in solitary a few times.

He just screwed it up.

He did not get out early.

So he served his full 15 years.

And then was out free,

walking on the streets.

♪♪

-So-called Preppy Killer

Robert Chambers is a free man today.

He walked out of a prison in Upstate New York

after serving 15 years

for the killing of Jennifer Levin.

He says he's resolved to become

a productive member of the community,

but Levin's mother called him dangerous

and said he doesn't have a conscience.

-We were, you know, horrified, nervous.

Now he was out free, walking on the streets.

I felt that, at any moment,

he could hurt another girl.

I just didn't think he was a sane person.

-Then we heard that, within a year,

he's in trouble again, arrested, this time for drugs,

with his girlfriend, Shawn Kovell.

-The police caught Robert selling drugs,

and he pleaded guilty.

-And he brought Shawn Kovell

right to the bottom with him.

She was in such bad shape,

I didn't even recognize her.

In fact, the judge was so moved

that he actually put her into rehab.

She got no time.

-Robert Chambers went back to prison.

He got 19 years,

which is longer than he served for murdering my daughter.

[Camera shutters click]

-From the time you were 19...

♪♪

...you've been in prison.

I mean, you have just completely wasted your life.

♪♪

-In the summer of 2018,

I was shocked, as many people were,

to see the headlines

about Theodore McCarrick.

-Breaking news this morning from the Vatican

regarding the resignation of a Cardinal.

-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick tonight suspended

from his public priestly duties after an allegation

he abused a teenager in New York 47 years ago

was found to be credible and substantiated.

-Now in his 80s,

it was exposed that he was a pedophile priest,

that he had been having sexual relationships

with the altar boys.

Let us not forget it was a letter

from Archbishop McCarrick to the judge

presented by Jack Litman as part of the bail application that

really rattled the judge and made him aware

that the hierarchy of the Catholic church was

firmly behind Robert Chambers.

-And remember that Phyllis Chambers,

Robert's mother,

had a long-time relationship

with McCarrick.

And, of course,

Robert Chambers was an altar boy.

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

about other men being raped.

It happens. It can happen.

It did happen.

-Would I be shocked if I found out

that Robert Chambers was sexually abused

by Teddy McCarrick?

Not at all.

Could it have happened?

Absolutely.

Robert, at the time, fits the profile perfectly.

He's very vulnerable.

He's the product of a broken marriage.

To look back, your head spins.

♪♪

-Do I have any reason to believe

that Robert was ever sexually abused by McCarrick?

No.

And even if that actually happened,

I don't think that's what caused his sociopathy.

♪♪

♪♪

Robert Chambers always blames everybody else.

He murdered her. He killed her in cold blood.

He took the life out of her with his bare hands.

♪♪

♪♪

-What's fascinating about the case is,

we really don't know what happened.

But we know that she's not responsible for her death.

[Crowd chanting "Justice for Jennifer!"]

-And the trial didn't give you that sense of "Oh!

Finally, justice for Jennifer."

-It's amazing the burden of proof that you need

to convince a jury that something happened,

especially -- especially from a woman's point of view.

A woman has to stand on her head

trying to prove that they were assaulted

or sexually assaulted.

I think, hopefully, down the road,

it's gonna be easier for women,

especially now with the "Me, Too" movement

and all these things that are happening.

-I don't know.

I look around, and I think we're in a strange time.

We have not come as far as I would have hoped we had

in the last 30-something years.

-We were just entering into the age

where women were demanding attention and rights and respect

and some balance in our justice system,

and Jennifer's case brought that to the surface.

-I mean, okay, I get it. People die.

Sure. Death happens.

My dog died, you know. I understand death.

But this person who was your best friend,

this magnetic, kind, funny, warm person was killed?

This is really important, these bits and bobs,

of who this person Jennifer Levin was

and the false narrative

of how she was portrayed.

-Jennifer was a good kid. She was responsible.

She was excited about going away to college.

She had a bright future.

She was my flesh and blood.

Even just to think how sad it was

that she spent the last few moments of her life,

that someone didn't care about her or value her,

it's very sad.

Can't get over that one.

It's too painful.

♪♪

-Detective Sheehan.

How are you, my friend? -What's up?

How you doin'? How are you?

-Okay. How are you?

-The thing that haunts me

is to think that he killed her here,

brutally beat her and strangled her.

Every time I go to Central Park, especially in that area,

I'll bless myself when I pass the tree.

I'll never forget this case as long as I live.

♪♪

-I think we expect our monsters

to step out from behind trees,

strangers that your mother warns you about,

and, in fact, it was the monster in our midst.

It was the guy we hung out with, we wanted to be with,

because he was cool,

and he was extremely handsome.

The number of times I would wake up and just think,

"If I could just grab Jennifer Levin by the hand

and say, 'Don't go into the park with him.'"

♪♪

-I remember when the trial was over,

I was contacted by Robert Abrams,

our attorney general.

And he sent me a letter about a bill that he's working on

that said you can't bring up

a crime victim's sexual past into court.

It's called the Rape Shield Bill.

I'd never read a bill in my life.

I called his office, and I said to him,

"What about deceased victims?

They shouldn't have their sexual past introduced

in a case that's not a sexual case."

And he said, "You're absolutely right.

If I add it, will you come to Albany?"

And I was like, "You know what?

This is what I was made to do.

This is what Jennifer would want me to do."

And we formed a lobby group called Justice for All.

♪♪

For 10 years, we managed to pass 13 pieces of legislation

to protect victims of crime.

I'm very proud of all the legislation

I was able to pass the 10 years that I worked in Albany,

lobbying for victims' rights.

We started Justice for All...

A lot of people get through

a lot of horrible things and survive.

I'm an example of it, because, trust me,

32 years ago, I didn't think I'd be here now.

But I am.

♪♪

And I tell you...

that wasn't just me.

It was me and Jen.

♪♪