25-05-2025
NYC prosecutor hatched elaborate plot to have estranged husband arrested amid bitter custody dispute
A Manhattan prosecutor allegedly weaponized her powerful position by enlisting allies within the NYPD and the District Attorney's Office to have her estranged husband, a respected New York Times reporter, arrested.
Assistant District Attorney Amanda Goun masterminded a scheme to have award-winning health care journalist Joseph Goldstein arrested in a bitter custody war over their two young children, according to a federal lawsuit that reads like the plot of a legal thriller.
According to the searing 62-page federal complaint filed earlier this month, ADA Goun allegedly had Goldstein, her husband of seven years, falsely arrested on trumped-up felony assault and child endangerment charges in 2022 - in a calculated bid to seize full custody of their kids.
But the lawsuit goes even further, accusing Goun of not just deception, but corruption.
'Rather than resolve the family court proceedings through lawful and ethical means, Defendant Goun exploited her prosecutorial power and corrupted multiple law enforcement agencies to destroy her husband's life and career,' the lawsuit alleges.
The suit suggests she used her status within the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to pressure prosecutors and NYPD officers into pursuing charges that responding police initially deemed unwarranted.
'She didn't just abuse her power - she recruited others to help her do it,' the complaint declares. 'This was not just a divorce. It was a coordinated attack.'
The allegations detail a chilling timeline of betrayal and manipulation within both the couple's marriage and a legal system.
What began as a contentious divorce quickly escalated into what Goldstein's attorneys call 'a coordinated, unconstitutional effort to have him arrested, publicly humiliated, and cut off from his children.'
The couple met in 2014 and married the following year. After a stint raising their children, Goun returned to the DA's office in 2018.
But by 2022, the marriage was collapsing and according to the suit, so was the boundary between her professional role and her personal vendetta.
According to the lawsuit, the saga began in September of that year when Goun filed for divorce from Goldstein.
By October 8, following a heated dispute inside their home with their children present, Goun called 911, claiming Goldstein had slammed a door on her arm - although responding NYPD officers found no evidence of a crime.
According to the responding NYPD officers, 'no crime had occurred and no arrest was warranted', they wrote.
That should have been the end of it but what allegedly happened next flipped standard legal procedure on its head.
Instead of accepting the officers' assessment, Goun allegedly called up her close friend and colleague Lawrence Newman, then a fellow prosecutor in the Manhattan DA's office, seeking advice on how to escalate the incident into felony territory.
That phone call, Goldstein's lawsuit claims, was captured on police body cameras.
The footage, the complaint alleges, sees Goun and Newman conspiring in real time to convert a routine domestic call into a career-crippling criminal prosecution.
Following the call, the suit says, Goun altered her account claiming not only that she had been bruised but had also been thrown to the ground.
'Unsatisfied with this assessment, Defendant Goun placed a call to her friend and fellow ADA, Lawrence Newman,' the suit states.
'Their conversation, captured on police body-worn camera, includes Goun conspiring with Newman to fabricate details and pressure the NYPD to escalate the incident into a felony assault charge.'
Soon after, she also accused Goldstein of physically abusing their children.
The lawsuit asserts that Goun coached the couple's young children, then just four and six-years-old to support those abuse allegations.
'The children were interrogated by NYPD and ACS at her direction, while she stood outside the door,' the suit says. 'They initially denied any abuse, but later, under pressure, repeated what Goun had allegedly told them to say.
'She wanted him out of the children's lives - and she weaponized her badge to make that happen,' the complaint claims.
Goldstein ended up being slapped with multiple charges - assault, harassment, and endangering the welfare of a child - despite officers initially determining no crime had occurred.
Even more disturbingly, the complaint claims that two NYPD officials, Detective Rachel Lutz and Officer Carmen Fabian, collaborated with Goun and her DA allies to push the charges forward.
'The conspiracy extended across two prosecutorial offices, at least two NYPD commands, and multiple city agencies,' the lawsuit asserts.
Goun's fellow prosecutors Kelly Keating and Lawrence Newman are also named in the complaint as active participants in the conspiracy, accused of helping 'upgrade' the charges against Goldstein.
Despite having no prior criminal history, Goldstein was arrested and charged with felony assault, harassment, and two counts of child endangerment.
His mugshot and charges were entered into public record, severely damaging his personal and professional reputation.
With a protective order issued against him, Goldstein was separated from his children for eight long months.
His access to his kids, his home, and his freedom hung in the balance while his reputation as a journalist and father crumbled under the weight of what he now calls a 'manufactured' legal ambush.
On at least one occasion, the suit alleges, Goun broke into Goldstein's Brooklyn apartment to gather information for her divorce strategy.
The Manhattan DA's office ultimately transferred the case to the Bronx to avoid conflicts of interest. Prosecutors reviewed the evidence and dropped all charges against Goldstein.
A family court investigation into the child abuse allegations was also dismissed as 'unfounded' by the Administration for Children's Services.
Goldstein, now partially reunited with his children, has filed suit not just for damages but for accountability. His complaint seeks restitution for what he says was a calculated effort to destroy his life and career.
The defendants named in the case - Goun, Keating, Newman, Lutz, and Fabian - have so far declined to comment publicly.
The Manhattan DA's office refused to discuss 'pending litigation' but confirmed it has referred the matter to the city Law Department.
The Brooklyn DA's office emphasized that Newman was not employed there at the time of the alleged conspiracy.
Goldstein himself has declined to speak publicly, allowing the lawsuit to speak for him.
'I was arrested, separated from my children, and branded a criminal based on lies,' he states in the complaint. 'All because my ex-wife had the power and connections to make it happen.'
Goldstein's suit remains pending in Manhattan federal court. Should the claims be proven, it would mean that a sitting Manhattan prosecutor conspired with colleagues and police to fabricate felony charges against her own husband during a family court dispute.
As of May 2025, Goun and Keating remain employed by the Manhattan DA's Office. Newman left the DA's office shortly after the October 2022 incident and currently works in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.
