By: Nick Carraway

A veteran journalist at The New York Times is accusing his estranged wife, a Manhattan prosecutor, of weaponizing her authority to have him falsely arrested and banned from his children during a bitter custody battle. According to a federal lawsuit reviewed by the New York Post, health-care reporter Joseph Goldstein claims Assistant District Attorney Amanda Goun conspired with colleagues in the DA’s office and NYPD officers to bring trumped-up criminal charges against him in 2022.

Goldstein’s complaint, filed May 16 in Manhattan federal court, names Goun, two other prosecutors, and two NYPD personnel as co-defendants. It alleges that Goun — using her connections in the District Attorney’s Office — coached their children to lie, manipulated officers at the scene of a domestic dispute, and ultimately pushed for felony charges that led to Goldstein’s arrest and a months-long order of protection barring him from seeing his kids.

According to the Post, the couple married in 2015 and have two young children. The marriage began to unravel in 2022, the suit says, when Goun rejoined the Manhattan DA’s Office after a stint in Suffolk County. That fall, she allegedly broke into a Brooklyn apartment shared by Goldstein’s family to gather incriminating material for divorce proceedings. Weeks later, on Oct. 8, a domestic dispute erupted at their home — with their 4- and 6-year-old children present.

Goun called 911 claiming Goldstein slammed a door on her, bruising her arm. But according to the suit, responding officers found no grounds for arrest. That’s when Goun allegedly called her colleague Lawrence Newman — now with the Brooklyn DA’s Office — from the scene, urging him to help pursue more serious charges. That conversation, according to the lawsuit, was caught on police bodycams and shows Goun’s alleged efforts to escalate the case.

The Post reports that Goun altered her account, later claiming she was knocked to the ground, prompting an assault charge. She then accused Goldstein of abusing their children — charges that the suit says were false and involved coaching the children to provide incriminating statements. Goldstein denied the allegations and maintained he never harmed his kids.

Goldstein was eventually charged with assault, harassment, and endangering the welfare of a child. His lawsuit claims Goun, Newman, ADA Kelly Keating, and NYPD officers Detective Rachel Lutz and Officer Carmen Fabian collaborated to fabricate the charges and use them as leverage in the custody battle.

The New York Post reports that these charges resulted in a painful eight-month period where Goldstein was barred from seeing his children. A family court investigation into the child-abuse claims was eventually dropped after the city’s Administration for Children’s Services deemed the allegations “unfounded.” The criminal case was also dismissed, and Goldstein has since regained partial custody.

Goun and Keating remain employed by the Manhattan DA’s Office. Newman left that office two months after the incident and now works in the Brooklyn DA’s Office, according to the Post. The NYPD and both DA’s offices declined to comment to the Post, and Goldstein has also declined public comment.

Goldstein is seeking unspecified damages in the 62-page federal complaint and is demanding the return of personal property he alleges Goun took during their separation.

This explosive case, as reported by the New York Post, shines a harsh light on the potential abuse of prosecutorial power and the personal toll it can take when public resources are allegedly used to influence private legal matters.