The creepy composer of “You Light Up My Life” — already on the hook for alleged casting-couch sex attacks on 13 starlet wannabes in his Upper East Side apartment — has at least 12 more women accusing him of audition audacities, prosecutors said yesterday.
Oscar-winning tunesmith Joseph Brooks, 72, learned after hobbling into court with his cane yesterday that his cross-country roster of sex-assault accusers is double the original number.
The additional accusers will not be added to his already lengthy 90-plus-count indictment because their cases are too old to prosecute, among other reasons, said Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal.
But Rosenthal told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon that she still hopes to call them as witnesses against Brooks when the case goes to trial, possibly by year’s end.
Brooks — whose son has been charged in last month’s Soho House murder — is accused of advertising for movie auditions on Craigslist, flying the beautiful young prospects to New York, then having them try out “scripts” that sometimes required they undress and drink wine laced with knockout drugs. His attacks ranged from forcible touching to outright rapes, prosecutors allege.
For now, prosecutors are keeping the new accusers’ names hush-hush, as they have the identities of the 13 “Jane Does” already officially accusing Brooks.
When the case eventually does go to trial, Brooks may call to the stand other starlet wannabes who answered his ads, auditioned in his East 63rd Street apartment and left without a word of complaint, said his lawyer, Jeffrey Hoffman.
“There are many people who went through exactly the same or similar situation — Craigslist, came to New York, interviewed for parts, et cetera — [and] nothing happened,” Hoffman said. “Those are very significant witnesses.”
Retorted Rosenthal, “That’s like a rapist calling every other woman he had sex with to say, ‘Well, he didn’t rape me.’ ”
Brooks is back in court for more pretrial discussions on March 4.
His son, Nick, returns to court on Feb. 8 as the accused murderer in the alleged Soho House bathtub strangulation of his ex-girlfriend, glamorous swimsuit designer Sylvie Cachay.