Caroline Giuliani Gets Community Service For Shoplifting Charge
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NEW YORK — A judge told former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's 21-year-old daughter Tuesday to do a day of community service and keep out of trouble to get rid of charges that she stole makeup from a high-end cosmetics store.
The case against Caroline Giuliani – accused of pocketing about $100 worth of beauty items – was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal. The legal term means the case will be closed and sealed if Giuliani completes the volunteer work, expected to be with the city Department of Sanitation, and doesn't have any more brushes with the law for six months.
"Stay out trouble and avoid re-arrest," Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Jennifer Schecter told Giuliani, a Harvard University student. She didn't enter any plea in the case, didn't speak in court and ignored reporters' questions as she, mother Donna Hanover and others waded through a media pack to a waiting Hyundai SUV. Her father wasn't there.
The Manhattan district attorney's office said the resolution of her case was common for first-time, low-dollar-amount shoplifting arrests in which no theft ring is suspected – not a special deal for the daughter of the man who made cracking down on petty crime a centerpiece of his tenure at City Hall.
Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and Republican presidential candidate, viewed being tough on low-level offenses as key to lowering crime rates and improving New Yorkers' quality of life. A spokeswoman for him didn't immediately respond to an e-mail message, and the ex-mayor has said through a representative that the case was a personal matter.
About 65 percent of the roughly 2,100 people arrested in first-time, roughly $100 or less shoplifting charges in Manhattan last year were offered and accepted the same dismissal deal as Caroline Giuliani, the district attorney's office said. Some others pleaded guilty to lesser charges that aren't crimes. Prosecutors say they evaluate each case individually when deciding what to offer.
His daughter was seen on security video pocketing more than $100 worth of makeup Aug. 4 at a Sephora store in Manhattan, police said. She was arrested on a misdemeanor charge but released with a notice to return to court.
Police said store managers initially indicated they didn't want to press charges against her, but the cosmetics company said in a statement that it aided prosecutors in their investigation.
The company, part of Paris-based luxury goods giant LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, declined to comment on the resolution of the case.
Caroline Giuliani is the younger of the former mayor's two children with Hanover, his ex-wife and a television reporter and actress. They had a bruisingly public split while he was in office – Hanover famously found out he wanted a divorce when he announced it at a news conference. The ex-mayor has since remarried and asked for privacy to deal with his family relationships.
In 2007, when Rudy Giuliani was seeking the Republican nomination for president, Caroline Giuliani listed herself as a member of Barack Obama's Facebook group supporting his candidacy. But she left the group after an online magazine sent her an inquiry about it, and she didn't comment on the presidential race.
Rudy Giuliani lost the GOP nod to Sen. John McCain, who was defeated by Obama.
Like some other high-profile people who got into trouble in New York in recent years, Caroline Giuliani is expected to perform her community service at the Sanitation Department, according to a person familiar with the details of her community service arrangement. The person was not authorized to discuss the arrangement publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell swept, mopped and scrubbed for five days at a Manhattan garbage truck garage in 2007 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault for throwing her cell phone at a maid. The year before, pop star Boy George spent five days sweeping New York streets after pleading guilty to falsely reporting a burglary at his Manhattan apartment.
Giuliani is due back in court Nov. 4 to show proof that she has done her volunteer work.
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JENNIFER PELTZ 08/31/10 04:52 PM ET Associated Press