Lawyer Charged In Violent Child Porn Ring Dead
Moshe Gerstein, who attended a day school in Massachusetts and who often served as his Orthodox synagogue's Torah reader, was found dead in Mexico, reports say, apparently a suicide.
Moshe Gerstein, NYC lawyer with Longmeadow ties, dies after authorities charge him with possessing, trading child pornography
Patrick Johnson • The Republican
A New York City corporate lawyer with ties to Longmeadow and Holyoke apparently committed suicide in Mexico, two days after it was announced he was arrested as part of a New York City investigation into an underground network of people who traded pornographic images of children, the Associated Press reported.
Moshe Gerstein, 35, died June 16, according to his obituary that appeared in The Republican on Friday. His funeral was conducted Friday at Ascher-Zimmerman Funeral Home in Springfield.
On June 14, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced Gerstein was one of 26 people arrested in May as part of a five-month investigation into an extensive network of people in the United State and Canada who regularly traded photographs and videos of children being sexually assaulted over an online file-sharing system. Prosecutors said Gerstein was found to have 5,000 pornographic images of children on his home computers.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. called the images “truly sickening” and that those in the network “traded images of child sexual assault the way others trade baseball cards.”
Gernstein was charged with promoting a sexual performance by a child and possessing a sexual performance by a child, according to his indictment, but he had not yet been arraigned on the charges before his death.
Those in the ring ranged in age from 18 to 63 and included drug store workers, a security guard, a building superintendent and a high school student. The charges against them vary, but they generally face charges of promoting or possessing a child sexual performance, which can carry up to seven years in prison.
Gerstein worked for 10 years as a lawyer with the firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in New York City.
He graduated with honors from Yale University and Harvard Law School. He was also a graduate of Heritage Academy and Longmeadow High School.
His obituary notes he was a Hebraic scholar who often conducted services and read the Torah at Congregation Rodphey Sholom in Holyoke.
Associated Press material was used in this report.
Note: Over the past few days, several people tried to get me to post on Gerstein's death. I've been waiting for the US Attorney to confirm the death. But as more media reports are published, I've decided to post. How Gerstein was able to leave the US is an open question.
Up to 7 years means 7 years per each count? In the case of Gerstein it means 35,000 years (=life)?
Regarding leaving to Mexico, you can, for example, cross by foot throe the San-Diego-Tijuana crossing, you never checked in American or in the Mexican sides.
Posted by: Russian PhD | June 27, 2011 at 03:25 AM
This sort of thing is another reason I've come othink humanity is unsalvageable. It doesn't matter if it happens only rarely (and I don't even think it's all that rare) - it's that it happens at all.
Posted by: Jeff | June 27, 2011 at 06:05 AM
No Torah... and morality is just made up. And in the end, the lowest common denominator wins.
Posted by: ahpee onyrface | June 27, 2011 at 06:31 AM
"""Regarding leaving to Mexico, you can, for example, cross by foot throe the San-Diego-Tijuana crossing, you never checked in American or in the Mexican sides."""
True except, 5 to 30 miles away are the true Mexican customs posts. There one has to have a visa etc ,which is automatic for an American.
I cross many times to Matamoros and Neve Progresso and just so long one does not venture past those cities, one does not encounter Mexican customs [assuming one walks across] with cars the Mexican army and Mexican customs will do an inspection, mainly looking for weapons.
Posted by: Isa | June 27, 2011 at 08:13 AM
Oh yes I forgot to add
Good riddance to bad trash!
Posted by: Isa | June 27, 2011 at 08:13 AM
He was married and I suspect that he has children. What a legacy he left them!
Posted by: effie | June 27, 2011 at 08:20 AM
In general there seems to be an easy-going attitude. This guy who is alleged to be in the same "ring" seems a lot more problematic (not just pictures but actual contact) yet he was let loose on just $20,000?
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/kid_porn_teacher_ONOgEBlEeC3VU1d5QWc4VK
Posted by: george | June 27, 2011 at 08:26 AM
Didn't Madoff do it in his bedroom?
Why Mexico?
Wasn't his wife Jenifer Jackson a shiksah?
Posted by: Loshonhora | June 27, 2011 at 08:32 AM
If his wife was a gentile, it would have been the only touch of morality that was ever in this "kike's" miserable life. (Loshonhora -- your use of the word "shiksa" is quite offensive...)
Posted by: Robert Wisler | June 27, 2011 at 09:04 AM
No Torah... and morality is just made up. And in the end, the lowest common denominator wins.
Posted by: ahpee onyrface
if you cant provide sources showing that the torah teaches these actions to be immoral and prohibited, then you have disproven your own claim.
since you are rightly repulsed by pedophilia, if its not in the torah then you must have developed your morality on this issue on your own or in conjuction with society.
Posted by: ah-pee-chorus | June 27, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Posted by: Robert Wisler | June 27, 2011 at 09:04 AM
Talking about Torah & blaming his sin on Torah, I wanted to know where the Torah told him to marry a shiksa?
Please don't blame Torah for this.
Posted by: Loshonhora | June 27, 2011 at 10:45 AM
No Loshonhora, I'm not God forbid blaming Torah, I'm blaming you and your deficient, low, disturbed, and obviously undeducated personality for your use of the perjorative "shiksa". You are about as well-balanced as Shlomo Schwartz of Los Angeles.
Posted by: Robert Wisler | June 27, 2011 at 10:55 AM
You are about as well-balanced as Shlomo Schwartz of Los Angeles.
Posted by: Robert Wisler | June 27, 2011 at 10:55 AM
You expect me to know qwho that is.
BTW you never watched Fideler On the Roof I guess.
Posted by: Loshonhora | June 27, 2011 at 12:12 PM
to sum it up with two words.
CREEP & COWARD!
Posted by: 613ENFORCER | June 27, 2011 at 02:14 PM
APC: apparently its ok as long as the girl is 3 year old :) Why do they still teach that in every day school?
Posted by: maven | June 27, 2011 at 04:06 PM
The planet will continue to rotate despite the loss
Posted by: anuran | June 27, 2011 at 09:02 PM
Anuran: you kofer! The sages say the planet stays still and sun revolves around it. (/humor).
Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | June 27, 2011 at 09:13 PM
"I cross many times to Matamoros".
What a politically incorrect name!
How come the Muslims haven't noticed?
"Shiksa" is only pejorative for those who know what it really means. 99999 people out of 10,000 don't, including the women who are called that.
Posted by: Reader | June 28, 2011 at 01:33 AM
@Loshonhora- His wife might have been a Shiksa, but she wasn't the degenerate pedophile. He, a Jew, was. So what do you call him?. Poor woman and her children. I feel so sorry for her having married that sicko. Also, what about the perv sicko who just got caught killing the 8 year old boy?- also a Jew. How many more are there that are supposedly good religious men? Loshonhora, to God, there's no distinction anymore and it's proven by the fact that these supposedly good Jewish citizen men are getting caught. How many more Jewish pervs are there? Please don't insult non-Jewish women.
Posted by: Lettish789 | July 14, 2011 at 07:43 PM