A rape charge against the son of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon was dismissed Monday after prosecutors said that they could not prove it, although they continue to pursue a count of strangulation.
The son, Abraham Chabon, was charged this year after a woman accused him of choking and hitting her while sexually assaulting her.
After dropping the rape charge, prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office said they had not presented the case to a grand jury and asked for more time to investigate the strangulation charge. A prosecutor, Phoebe Rosenfeld, also indicated in Manhattan Criminal Court that prosecutors might charge Mr. Chabon with assault.
Mr. Chabon, 22, wearing a gray suit jacket and wide rimmed glasses, appeared in court accompanied by his lawyer, Isabelle A. Kirshner. His parents, who had appeared at a previous hearing, were not present.
“We are grateful that the D.A.’s office has chosen to carefully scrutinize the evidence in this matter and to dismiss a charge that could not be sustained,” Ms. Kirshner said. “We are hopeful that the process will continue and the matter will be resolved appropriately.”
The accusations against Mr. Chabon came to light earlier this year, when he was arrested and charged with rape and strangulation after a woman accused him of choking and hitting her while sexually assaulting her in January 2024 in a building on East 12th Street.
Mr. Chabon was arrested in June and pleaded not guilty to the charges of first-degree rape and second-degree strangulation. He was released on bail and has returned to court since. At the time, a lawyer for Mr. Chabon called the allegations false and said the investigation would prove him innocent.
Mr. Chabon, a New York University student, appears to still be enrolled at the university, according to a class roster. A university spokesman did not immediately respond to an email.
According to prosecutors, the woman whom Mr. Chabon is charged with assaulting said that he had grabbed her neck and applied pressure so that she had difficulty breathing. He then carried her to his bed and continued to choke her, she said according to the complaint.
Mr. Chabon then raped her and struck her repeatedly in the face, according to the court papers, “causing stupor and loss of vision in one eye.”
Mr. Chabon’s case broke into the headlines in June propelled primarily by his last name.
At a hearing in August, Mr. Chabon was accompanied by his parents, including his mother, Ayelet Waldman, who is a well-known writer and whose surname he sometimes uses.
His father, Michael Chabon, has written several novels, including the “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,” “Wonder Boys,” “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” and “Telegraph Avenue.”
Mr. Chabon’s book “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and is the basis for an opera of the same name that premiered at the Metropolitan Opera this month.
Anusha Bayya contributed reporting.
Hurubie Meko is a Times reporter covering criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney’s office and state courts.
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