NYC- A former prosecutor who investigated Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky was still a married man when he allegedly stalked his former lover in Manhattan, his estranged wife’s sister said yesterday.
Robert Ray, the independent counsel who helped probe the Clintons’ Whitewater land deal – later spawning the Lewinsky investigation – surrendered to cops Thursday.
His ex-girlfriend, Tracy Loughlin, had told police that Ray – a former GOP Senate candidate from New Jersey – had obsessively followed her and blanketed her with unwanted calls and e-mails after their breakup four months ago.
“I don’t have anything to say right now,” a shaken Loughlin, 40, said outside her Murray Hill apartment building yesterday.
But the red-haired beauty then added that Ray had told her he was divorced when they were together – a claim that Ray’s sister-in-law vehemently denied.
“My sister has suffered tremendously in the last year and divorce proceedings are well underway,” said Sarah Lawrey, whose sister, Kristen, married Ray in 1984 and lived with him in Rumson, N.J.
“But they are not divorced yet,” Lawrey said. “This is just another thing that will hurt my sister.”
Ray, 46, was charged with fourth-degree stalking and given a desk-appearance ticket before being released late Thursday.
He could not be reached for comment yesterday, and calls to Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP, the high-powered Park Ave. law firm where he is a partner, were not returned.
Ray was Ken Starr’s handpicked successor to take over the final stages of a seven-year, $70 million investigation to determine whether the Clintons had committed any financial misdeeds in their Arkansas land dealings. In 2002, Ray, an outspoken critic of the Clintons, said there was insufficient evidence they had committed a crime.
He then returned to New Jersey and pursued the GOP nomination to the U.S. Senate, but he abandoned his campaign after only a few weeks. He is due to appear in court on the stalking charges on June 13.
Loughlin, who works in magazine promotions, was in the news last year after she plunged into the East River in an attempt to save her dog, which had fallen into the icy water. She and the dog were pulled out minutes later by good Samaritans.