From PageSix.com, about Bryant Gumbel's 6'5" son.
Saturday, August 24, 2002
CELEBRITY TREATMENT
By LARRY CELONA and ERIC LENKOWITZ
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Hilary Quinlan & Bryant Gumbel -Photo by: DMI
Bradley Gumbel, who was ID'd as the man who assaulted a woman the previous night, is released early yesterday after the DA said his alibi checked out.
Cops were fuming yesterday over the district attorney's quick release of Bryant Gumbel's son - who had been arrested for assault and attempted robbery - despite a victim's positive identification less than an hour after the attack.
Bradley Gumbel, 23, hopped a flight to West Palm Beach, Fla., just hours after his release so he could attend his father's wedding to long-time mistress Hilary Quinlan at the luxurious Breakers hotel today.
"They're giving him the benefit of the doubt because of who he is and because he hired a high-priced lawyer," one officer said.
"If it's any other person, if it wasn't Gumbel's kid, the arrest would have held."
Some cops said they were also surprised an assistant DA accompanied detectives to retrace Gumbel's alleged footsteps from early Thursday morning.
"It's unheard of," an investigator said.
Gumbel was locked up for 24 hours after a woman fingered the 6-foot-5 former Columbia Prep basketball star as the man who knocked her down and stole her purse.
Mary Jane Balish, a 31-year-old interior designer, told cops she was walking home from a friend's house when a man tackled her from behind, sources said.
Balish said that as she tried to give up her purse, her attacker told her, "That's not what I want."
She managed to break free and flag down a nearby doorman who called 911.
Balish described her attacker as a 6-foot-2 black man with a shaved head, wearing a white shirt and black pants.
Bradley Gumbel is 6-foot-5. The woman has issues.
Cops stopped Gumbel, who sources said "fit the description to a T," and Balish ID'd him on the scene.
Gumbel was arrested, but released after his alibi - he said he was at the Third Avenue bar Big Sur with a date at the time of the crime - checked out.
Sherry Hunter, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office, wouldn't comment on any specifics but said "the matter requires further investigation."
As Gumbel walked out of court a free man shortly after 2:30 a.m. yesterday, he said, "I feel good. Good night," and was whisked away in a waiting car.
He arrived at Palm Beach International Airport at around 3:30 p.m., looking relaxed with a copy of today's Post opened to the story of his ordeal.
He picked up a black leather garment bag, met a group of people who arrived on a separate flight and jumped into a stretch limo.
"I have no reason to talk to the media," Gumbel told The Post upon his arrival. "I am here on personal business."
His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said the Gumbels have no plans to sue the city, and are accepting the incident as "good old-fashioned mistakes that happen."
"My client is not vindictive or angry," Brafman said.
Additional reporting by Mark LeShure in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Ed Robinson and Maxine Shen in New York
I'd sue the binch, if not the po-pos.