"One Nut Case Relative Does All This Damage."

You can't imagine how painful this is, says his father

BY BARBARA ROSS, THOMAS ZAMBITO and TINA MOORE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Alberto Braunstein, 73, is the father of Halloween sex fiend Peter Braunstein.

Peter Braunstein's dad sat through days and days of bizarre testimony about his son's 13-hour sexual assault on a Chelsea woman.

But, yesterday, when the jury read its guilty verdict, Alberto Braunstein, 74, was nowhere to be found.

By the time he returned, the panel had left the courtroom and his son had been led away in handcuffs.

"I don't suppose anybody cares," the elder Braunstein said, "but you can't imagine how painful this is as a parent to watch this happen to a child."

Braunstein's half-brother Allan Starkie did not share his father's grief.

He said yesterday that he thought the verdict was "pretty fair."

"He was guilty. He was convicted in a fair trial," Starkie said.

Starkie, who had just flown in from Los Angeles and heard the verdict from a reporter, said Braunstein had problems through his childhood.

"He was just a very, very, very strange kid," Starkie said. "Growing up, he was intolerable. It got worse as he got older."

Starkie said Braunstein's trouble started soon after he learned of a well-kept family secret.

Braunstein was born after his mother had an affair with her sister's husband, Starkie's father.

"Peter is the offspring of my father and my aunt," Starkie said. "As soon as he found out, he committed his first crime."

"A lot of lives have been really badly damaged," said Starkie, a businessman. "Reputations ... take a long time to build. Then one nut case relative does all this damage."

bross@nydailynews.com

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"I don't suppose anybody cares,"

Yes Mr. Alberto Braunstein, We at ElderAbuseHelp.Org do care, and so does our readers , we care a great deal that's why we are devoting this page to victims like you.

You didn't ask to be traumatized like this, but it happens, like it has been said all it takes is 'One Nut Case" and a lot of us know what it is to suffer from seeing a close relative destroyed, regardless of how it's done.

Mr. Braunstein please be strong, you will be in our thoughts and prayers, while you recover from this shock, there was nothing you could do, and it had nothing to do with whom your aunt dated, some kids come from horrible disjointed families and have gone on to become super stars in their own right. You did the best you could and the kid made some bad calls, please take care of yourself. At 73 you are an inspiration to us all and nobody should have to go with what you are going thru.