Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie quietly blocked a bill that would have closed a loophole in the state’s rape laws allowing alleged sexual predators to use a victim’s voluntary intoxication as part of their defense, sources said.
The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz (D-Bronx), received bipartisan support in the lower chamber, and passed out of the Codes committee in February. The Senate unanimously passed its own version of the legislation, too.
Yet this month, the bill failed to get on the agenda of the Rules committee chaired by Heastie — who holds the final say on whether legislation gets a vote before heading to the Assembly floor.
“If this is a bill [Heastie] wanted passed, it would’ve sailed through without any problems,” a legislative source told The Post.
Advocates lashed out at the Assembly speaker for effectively killing the bill, claiming he should be particularly concerned with the issue since rapes have soared 25% this year in the 49th Precinct, which covers the Laconia neighborhood where Heastie’s office is located, compared to 2023, per NYPD data.
“New York State laws currently are not sufficient to protect us all when we are at our most defenseless, much less survivors of rape. Speaker Heastie is simply proliferating that,” said Elizabeth da Trindade-Asher, co-chair of the Justice Without Exclusion Coalition.
A spokesman for Heastie did not respond to a request for comment. Dinowitz declined to comment.
