ROBERT CHAMBERS admits he was driving with a suspended license when he was busted by cops – but insists he knows nothing about the drug residue police say they found in his car.
“No way, no way,” he told me yesterday in an exclusive interview. “I don’t know what they found – it wasn’t mine.”
It’s been 21 months since Chambers finished serving his 15-year manslaughter sentence for the 1986 Central Park strangulation slaying of Jennifer Levin and he finally felt he was moving on with his life.
And then suddenly he’s busted and back in jail.
“I can’t believe this whole thing at a time when I’m getting together a very normal life,” he said. “Things have been going pretty well – tough but good.
“I have no problems with anything or anybody. I’m just working and paying my bills. No real problems.”
He said his Tuesday night run-in with cops climaxed in terror when six men in blue jumped out of a van pointing guns at his head and hauled him off to the slammer.
He provided a detailed account of his encounter with police – one that varies quite significantly from the police version.
“I had dropped off a friend in my car and stopped off at a place next to a McDonald’s uptown,” he said. “I was heading home, but I bought some onion rings and a soda.”
He was standing on the street eating, he said, when “I heard someone say ‘Robert, Robert’ and then ‘Chambers.’ ”
“Two cops approached me and said I was driving with a suspended license.”
They were “polite,” he said. And “they were correct.”
“I was driving with a suspended license. I had a moving violation in August and was told to pay a $40 fine – but I honestly forgot.”
“The cops patted me down and checked my ID.
“I apologized and one of them said, ‘Pay the fine. You’re all right, get out of here.’ ”
He said he thought that was the end of it.
“I walk back to my car still eating, got in, backed out onto 96th Street and toward the FDR Drive,” he said.
The next thing he knew, he said, police sirens were wailing.
“I was on the right-hand side of 96th Street, I couldn’t get over to stop on the left-hand side but a police van pulled up in front and I stopped,” Chambers said.
“Suddenly, six cops get out with guns pointing at my head, yelling my name, with guns waving all over the place.
“I didn’t know what was going on. I just left two cops who had sent me on my way,” he said.
“They pushed me face down, handcuffed me, threw me in the van. I didn’t have any idea what was going on and then they took me to the 32nd Precinct.”
Now, the police say the whole thing went down on 132nd Street, near the Harlem River Drive – quite a bit north of 96th Street.
And what of police allegations that there was drug residue in his car?
“The first time I heard about it was at court,” Chambers said. “An ADA or someone had written down on paper that they had found a straw in the back seat of the car with some residue or crust of cocaine on it. I don’t know what they found – it wasn’t mine.”
His mother, Phyllis Chambers, an award-winning orthopedic nurse, told me her 38-year-old son – who has a history of drug and alcohol abuse – “is devastated” by the drug charge.
“I’d be the first to blast him if I thought he had anything to do with drugs,” she said.
“He’s had the flu and he doesn’t even take aspirin and now this stuff about guns at his head. I can’t believe it. Guns, allegations of drugs, just not true,” she said.
Chambers said he didn’t realize what was happening when he was first arrested.
“At the 32nd Precinct, I noticed a lot of the men in the holding cell were there on traffic violations,” he said. “I thought it was one of those big sweeps that happen from time to time.”
He recalled the traffic ticket he had forgotten to pay – the one that led to the suspension of his license earlier this month.
“I’m embarrassed and I apologize. The fine and the penalty probably only comes to $100, and suddenly this,” he said.
“Drugs, no way,” he added.
His mother said she’s been pleased with the way her son has matured since his release from jail.
“Everything has been going so well. He works, he pays the rent, the cable television, the telephone, the cellphone.
“When he came out of prison he didn’t even know how to open a bank account. Now he has a little bit of money – not very much, but it’s a start.
“He is still with his girlfriend, Shawn [Kovell], after 17 years. She is a wonderful, supportive and very loyal girl. They come here often for dinner.”
After his release from jail, Chambers said he moved to Atlanta, Ga., where he worked in a textile factory.
He moved back to New York with Shawn after her mother died and found a job with an old friend, a commercial artist. He said he now works up to 12 hours a day handling office sales.
“There have, of course, been rough spots – like in anyone’s life,” he said. “I have to continually recognize the grief I caused. But right now life is coming together.”
His mother offered evidence of just how much her son has changed.
“This time last year from 11 a.m. ’til 6 p.m. Robert and Shawn were serving Thanksgiving dinners to the needy. Both are very aware of the act of giving.”
Added Chambers’ attorney Brian O’Dwyer, “From where I stand, Robert has been a model citizen and has done everything to do things the right way.”
I have met Robert Chambers many times and have always found him to be a perfect gentleman – although I’m not quite sure how the Levin family would react to that. And who can blame them.