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Shele Covlin's Husband Hires Attorney as Her Murder Probe Continues

By DNAinfo Staff on January 5, 2012 8:29am

Rod Covlin is accusing of strangling his wife Shele Danishefsky Covlin to death in a lawsuit filed last week.
Rod Covlin is accusing of strangling his wife Shele Danishefsky Covlin to death in a lawsuit filed last week.
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MANHATTAN — The husband and sole suspect in the 2009 murder of a wealthy Upper West Side woman who was found lifeless in her bathtub has hired a prominent criminal defense attorney and is publicly denying the accusations for the first time in years, his new lawyer confirmed Wednesday.

Roderick Covlin has retained attorney Robert Gottlieb to represent him against potential future criminal charges that may result from an ongoing investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's office into the Dec. 31, 2009 homicide of Shele Danishefsky Covlin, 47.

Covlin has been mum for so long "in order to protect his very young children form the media spotlight, but enough is enough," Gottlieb said Wednesday.

The West 68th Street building where 47-year-old Shele Danishefsky Covlin was murdered on Dec. 31, 2009.
The West 68th Street building where 47-year-old Shele Danishefsky Covlin was murdered on Dec. 31, 2009.
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DNAinfo/Shayna Jacobs

He "will no longer serve as a punching bag for those who clearly do not have his children's interests at heart."

Gottlieb said Covlin, 38, is "confident' he won't be charged "for the very simple reason that he did not commit any crime."

"He did nothing to cause his wife's very tragic death," Gottlieb added in an e-mail  Wednesday.

Gottlieb said Covlin cooperated with cops by speaking to them "at length" after his wife was found.

Despite his assertions, a city agency publicly accused him of the murder by filing a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Danishefsky Covlin's estate in December.

According to the lawsuit filed by an attorney for the public administrator, the pair were "embroiled in contentious divorce proceedings" and the wife believed her husband "intended to kill her."

The pair had already obtained a "get," or divorce under Jewish law, and were battling out the terms of the divorce in civil court, DNAinfo reported in 2010. Although they were separated, Covlin lived in the same 155 West 68th Street building, just down the hall from his wife and children.

Danishefsky Covlin's lifeless body was discovered by the couple's then 9-year-old daughter Anna. They also have a son, Myles, who was age 3 at the time.

Prior to her death, Danishefsky Covlin obtained a restraining order to prevent her husband from contacting her and the children, according to court papers.

Despite these past orders, both children are living with Covlin and his parents at their Scarsdale, N.Y. home but Danishefsky Covlin's brother is fighting for custody, their attorney, Marilyn Chinitz, confirmed last week.

Danishefsky Covlin's death was initially ruled an accident because her Orthodox Jewish family did not want an autopsy conducted for religious reasons. They were later persuaded to allow the procedure and her body was exhumed.

After the testing, it was revealed that she was strangled to death but the quick clean up of the crime scene and the passing of time had made it difficult to recover evidence, sources said.

A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA's office declined to comment on the status of the investigation into Danishefsky Covlin's murder.