Read original...Everyone's trying to Duke me!
Thursday, July 12th 2007, 4:00 AM
"He feels this is unjustly happening to him," said Gallagher's lawyer, Stephen Mahler.
"He thinks this is sort of comparable to the Duke situation, where everybody runs with the ball and you become the victim of the publicity rather than the facts of the case."
The amiable Republican councilman found himself at the center of a maelstrom after he was accused of assaulting a woman who lives near his Middle Village home.
He met the 52-year-old married woman at Danny Boy's Irish Pub & Restaurant Sunday night and allegedly had sex with her at his district office, several sources said. She later told police Gallagher sexually assaulted her. Police raided his office but have declined to press charges.
Gallagher, 43, voluntarily turned over a DNA sample to investigators, who will determine if it matches material found at the scene. A grand jury is expected to convene in two weeks, sources said.
Gallagher - described by several current and former colleagues on the Council as a heavy social drinker - "absolutely and vehemently denied any wrongdoing," his lawyer said.
He compared himself to three players on Duke's lacrosse team who were indicted last year for raping a stripper. After a year-long ordeal, the charges were dropped and the district attorney in the notorious case was disbarred and forced out of office.
Gallagher, his wife and their two teenage sons are not staying at their Middle Village home, which is being staked out by reporters and photographers.
With John Lauinger and Ernie Naspretto
