Son of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon admits to choking woman during sex as part of no-jail deal
The son of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon admitted in Manhattan court Tuesday that he strangled a woman he was having sex with — as he copped a plea deal to dodge jail time.Abraham Chabon, a 23-year-old journalism student at NYU, pleaded guilty to criminal obstruction of breathing and harassment in the second degree in front of Judge Janice E.Chen at a brief appearance in criminal court.Chabon told the judge he obstructed the breathing of the woman by applying pressure to her neck to deprive her of oxygen during their Jan.
25, 2024, tryst in an apartment on East 12th Street.The defendant called it “consensual choking during a consensual sexual encounter.”Chabon was initially charged June 12, 2025, with first-degree rape and second-degree strangulation after prosecutors said he choked and beat the woman while molesting her inside an apartment.Prosecutors had claimed that Chabon grabbed the woman’s neck and struck her “repeatedly in the face” — but the rape charge was tossed in September 2025 because of what the district attorney’s office called insufficient evidence.In March, prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining top charge — second-degree strangulation, a felony — before Chabon ultimately accepted a misdemeanor rap.Under the terms of the plea deal, Chabon must remain arrest-free and continue with counseling and abiding to an order of protection involving the woman for 18 months.If he adheres to the rules, he will be allowed to withdraw his plea and resentenced to a conditional discharge of harassment in the second degree, a violation — which will remain on his record.If Chabon fails to meet all the terms of the agreement, he faces up to a year in jail.A rep for Chabon said in a statement that prosecutor’s case fell apart when the victim admitted to others that the sexual encounter was consensual — but that Chabon “accepts responsibility for engaging in consensual choking during a consensual sexual encounter.“This pas...