Joseph Brooks

Joseph Brooks is a 70 year old Jewish-American screenwriter, director, producer and composer. He composed the the song You Light Up My Life for the film of the same name that he also wrote, directed and produced.

The song reached #1 on the US popular charts and earned Brooks an Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Golden Globe Award and an American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Award.    9

Oscar-winning composer, 71, 'raped 11 women using Craigslist to lure victims with promise of film role'
The women read an online ad placed by director, Joseph Brooks, applied for the audition 'and thought this was their chance to become a big star,' prosecutor Lisa Friel said.

Instead, once the women were in Brooks' Manhattan apartment, he plied them with wine and forcibly raped them or used threats and coercive behavior to make them have sex with him, prosecutors said. 5  He said Brooks' scheme, which ran from at least 2005 to 2008, was enabled by his personal assistant, Niomi Lucier, who helped pick the victims, interviewed them, arranged their travel and made them feel comfortable.
 

The Rapist Had An Assistant

Niomi Lucier, 42, was indicted on nine counts of criminal facilitation and is expected to return from Washington state and surrender to authorities in New York City next week, the DA  said.

She has no attorney in New York and didn't immediately return a telephone message seeking comment Tuesday. When she arrived in New York last March, she said, the assistant escorted her to the director's Upper East Side apartment and left them alone.

 

A Naive Gentile Girl

When she arrived in New York last March, she said, the assistant escorted her to the director's Upper East Side apartment and left them alone. Spruell said she grew uncomfortable as Brooks became increasingly intimidating.  "I was scared and I was trapped. I said, 'I can't do this.' But he tore off my clothes."

Spruell said she, fearing for her life, finally relented and was raped.

A Second Girl Testifies

"At one point, he said, 'I don't like your tights, take off your tights,' " she said. When the director tried to rip off her clothes, she said, she pushed him off.

"I don't remember leaving," she said. "It was a close call and it was terrifying."

Maxine Rosenthal Is The Prosecutor

Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal, the lead prosecutor, said she found other victims by searching Brooks' and Lucier's computers and cold-calling women whose names she saw. 8