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Songwriter/director charged in 11 sex assaults
Photo credit: Urbanite
(AP Photo/Louis Lanzano)
The man who penned the sappy 1970s sensation “You Light Up My Life” was indicted yesterday on charges of raping or sexually assaulting 11 women over the course of three years, officials said.
Oscar-winning director and songwriter Joseph Brooks, 71, allegedly attacked the women, ages 18 to 30, after luring them — many through Craigslist ads — into his Upper East Side apartment under the guise of an acting audition, prosecutors said.
Brooks often “incapacitated” the women before raping or assaulting them, according to the 91-count indictment.Brooks turned himself in to police yesterday and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. His attorney, Jeffrey Hoffman, called the charges absurd, pointing to part of the indictment that alleges Brooks raped five women in a five-week span in 2008.
“He’d…have to be doing nothing else,” Hoffman said.
A judge released Brooks until tomorrow, when he is due back in court to pay $250,000 in bail.
The heaviest-hitting charges Brooks faces are eight counts of first-degree rape, which carries up to 25 years in prison.
His personal assistant Shawni Lucier, 42, of Washington state, is also facing charges for allegedly facilitating the sexual assaults of nine of the women.
Lucier faces up to one year in jail for allegedly arranging for the women, who were flown from other parts of the country, to meet with Brooks, knowing he was attacking them, prosecutors contend.
Brooks won an Oscar in 1977 for the ballad “You Light Up My Life” and penned and directed a movie by the same name. He also made his name in the jingle-writing business, coming up with songs for Pepsi and Geritol.
(Marlene Naanes)
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