Greg Kelly case puts Manhattan DA in hot seat

While the city's powerful police commissioner faced questions Friday about a rape allegation against his TV-anchor son, the probe has also put the district attorney in a delicate spot.

The Manhattan DA who brought and dropped sex charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is in the thick of another highly scrutinized sex-attack investigation, this one involving a relative of a key law enforcement ally. But the new inquiry presents major differences; for one, there have been no arrests.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly refused to discuss the investigation as he faced the media Friday for the first time since reports surfaced that a woman had accused his son Greg of rape.

"I'm not going to . . . with all due respect, answer any questions on this matter," Kelly said at police headquarters, saying questions should be addressed to the DA's office. Police turned the matter over to prosecutors because of the potential conflict of interest in investigating one of the commissioner's sons.

Greg Kelly, 43, co-host of the local TV morning show "Good Day New York," has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

The allegation presents a new high-profile sex-crime probe less than six months after the attempted rape charge against the former International Monetary Fund leader collapsed amid doubt about his accuser's trustworthiness in the biggest case of Cyrus R. Vance Jr.'s two years as DA. Indeed, the Strauss-Kahn case still looms large enough that Greg Kelly himself queried Vance on-air about it just this Monday.

The DA's office stayed silent about the matter Friday as Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised how Commissioner Kelly and the police department addressed it and called Vance "a tough, smart guy" who could handle the hot seat.

The woman told police Tuesday she met Greg Kelly for drinks on Oct. 8, they went to her lower Manhattan law office and he assaulted her while she wasn't capable of consenting to sex, a person familiar with the investigation has said. The woman and Kelly stayed in contact afterward, the person said.

She said she became pregnant from the encounter and had an abortion, according to a law enforcement official.

At some point, the woman's boyfriend confronted the commissioner at a public event, saying Greg Kelly ruined his girlfriend's life but declining to elaborate when asked what he meant, according to police spokesman Paul Browne.

Greg Kelly's lawyer, Andrew Lankler, has said the investigation "will prove Mr. Kelly's innocence."

Kelly took time off starting Thursday from his show on local Fox affiliate WNYW-TV, the station said.