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Fashion writer sought in bizarre New York sex assault case

NEW YORK - He is not a killer, a mobster or a terrorist. But a bizarre sexual assault, a cat-and-mouse manhunt and a tabloid feeding frenzy have combined to make a failed fashion writer named Peter Braunstein the most wanted man in New York.

Detectives want to question Braunstein, 41, about a Halloween night episode in which a woman was molested for 13 hours by a man who bluffed his way into her apartment by posing as a firefighter coming to her rescue.

Police have so far been unable to find him - despite a $12,000 reward, a mug shot that has become a front-page mainstay and repeated appeals by his father to give up.

Police have been dealing with a slew of possible Braunstein sightings. The most recent, on Thursday - by a Brooklyn shop owner who believes he sold Braunstein a cup of coffee - fueled a media frenzy.

Police converged on the area but found no Braunstein.

The saga began Halloween night, when a man in fire gear set two small blazes in an apartment building in Manhattan's Chelsea section. With smoke filling the hallway, he pounded on the alleged victim's door, saying he was from the "FDNY."

The 34-year-old woman told detectives that when she opened her door, the man pulled a gun on her, then covered her face with a rag soaked in some type of chemical.

As she faded in and out of consciousness, the man put on a ski mask, tied her up and molested her, she said. She also recalled him videotaping the attack. Police believe Braunstein knew the woman and had an obsession with her.

An aspiring playwright and freelance journalist who once wrote for Women's Wear Daily, Braunstein was fired by the magazine in 2002 in a dispute over tickets to an awards show.

[Last modified November 19, 2005, 01:09:04]