The Associated Press
By SAMUEL MAULL
NEW YORK — A writer accused of setting fires and posing as a firefighter so he could get into a woman’s apartment has pleaded not guilty to charges that he bound and sadistically abused her for more than 13 hours.
Peter Braunstein, 41, wearing a gray prison jumpsuit and with healing knife wounds visible on the right side of his neck, said nothing else after entering his plea of not guilty to a 13-count indictment.
The indictment charges Braunstein, an aspiring playwright and freelance journalist who once wrote for Women’s Wear Daily, with kidnapping, arson, burglary, robbery, sexual abuse and assault. Braunstein and his alleged victim reportedly once worked for the same magazine corporation at the same time.
Braunstein allegedly spent about six weeks on the run after the Oct. 31 incident.
Last month, he was spotted on the University of Memphis campus by a woman who police said recognized him from media reports. Braunstein then said, “I’m the person you’re looking for,” and stabbed himself in the neck. He was arrested by Dec. 16 by campus police and after a brief court hearing, sent back to New York.
Braunstein’s lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, told state Supreme Court Justice Brenda Soloff he would probably request a mental competency exam when his client returns to court Feb. 23. That exam would determine whether Braunstein is fit to stand trial.
Braunstein is accused of setting two small blazes in the hallway of a Manhattan building outside the 34-year-old woman’s apartment on Halloween night and pretending to be a firefighter so she would let him into her home. With smoke filling the hallway, he allegedly pounded on the victim’s door and announced he was from the “FDNY.”
Police said he then bound the woman and molested her for more than 13 hours. The accuser also recalled the assailant videotaping the attack.