Press

Woman Is Accused of Stalking Yankees’ Cashman
February 2, 2012

A Manhattan woman was arraigned Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of stalking Brian Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager. She was also charged with grand larceny and aggravated harassment after she was accused of extorting $6,000 from Cashman for a medical procedure. She threatened to reveal embarrassing information to the news media and to Cashman’s family if he did not comply, according to court documents.

Brian Cashman told investigators he met Louise Neathway in April. She was arrested after he went to the district attorney.

The woman, who is known as Louise Neathway but who has also gone by the name Louise Meanwell, has a record of arrests for harassment and criminal trespass in three states. The judge granted Cashman, his wife and two children an order of protection against her.

Neathway, 36, was arrested Wednesday at her apartment in TriBeCa after Cashman went to the district attorney; her lawyers have denied his accusations. Judge Abraham Clott set bail at $300,000 bond or $200,000 cash, but he imposed a 72-hour surety hearing, leaving the defendant in custody for now.

Although Cashman’s name was never mentioned in the proceeding Thursday evening, his spokesman, Chris Giglio, confirmed that Cashman was involved in the case and issued a statement on his behalf. “Mr. Cashman is very gratified that this matter is in the hands of law enforcement,” it read.

Cashman, 44, has been separated from his wife, Mary, for at least a year, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. Cashman told investigators he met Neathway in April.

The Yankees declined to comment but were said to be in complete support of Cashman, who has been the general manager since 1998 and has worked for the organization since he was hired as an intern in 1986. In November, he agreed to a three-year contract extension worth roughly $9 million, and in recent years he has consolidated his power within the organization.

Since taking over for Bob Watson before the 1998 season, Cashman has been the general manager for four World Series championships, the most recent in 2009. In recent years he has grown increasingly forthright and less inhibited in his public comments.

According to the court documents, last fall Neathway demanded that Cashman, referred to as the “informant” in the document, give her $15,000 to pay for an unspecified medical procedure. Cashman deposited $6,000 into her bank account in two separate transactions Jan. 18, the court documents said. After the initial deposits, the documents said, Neathway asked for more money and said she would go to the news media and Cashman’s family if he did not supply it.

“The defendant has threatened physical harm to a person the informant knows, has contacted said individual through several means of electronic communication, and has contacted and threatened to contact members of the informant’s family,” the court documents said.

One of Neathway’s lawyers, Stephen G. McCarthy Jr., said the case boiled down to a “a married man in an inappropriate relationship with a single mother” that ended badly.

He said the district attorney’s office had bought the married man’s version of events “hook, line and sinker.” Neathway has a 14-year-old daughter, McCarthy said.

“Ms. Meanwell denies the accusation, and we believe that after a thorough review of the facts we will obtain a favorable result for Ms. Meanwell from the district attorney’s office,” her lawyers said in a statement.

Meanwell has been cited in several criminal complaints of a similar nature. According to court documents, on May 13, 2009, she was arrested and charged with stalking and criminal trespass in Hudson County, N.J. She was later sentenced to 41 days in county jail and three years of probation.

She has also been charged with aggravated harassment, sending harassing e-mails and second-degree trespass in two other cases in New York as recently as 2010, and one in North Carolina dating to 1998.

McCarthy said Neathway had held a job for nine years in medical sales and graduated from SUNY Albany. He said the New Jersey case that prosecutors referred to ended with a sentence of three years of probation; she was required to undergo psychiatric counseling.

Assistant District Attorney Eric Iverson said there were two outstanding warrants for Neathway for harassment in the Albany area. One of her lawyers said the warrants were a result of a “difficult custody battle” Neathway has had with her former husband, who lives in Sand Lake, N.Y.