Haredi Rabbi Pleads Not Guilty To Child Sex Abuse Counts

Rabbi Moishe Turner has pleaded not guilty in a Spring Valley court today to seven counts of committing a criminal sexual act and child endangerment. News 12 calls Turner a "self proclaimed rabbi" because haredim claim that Turner, who worked for the OU as a mashgiach, isn't a real rabbi because he doesn't lead a congregation or a school.

 

News 12 is reporting that Rabbi Moishe Turner – who News 12 calls a "self proclaimed rabbi" because haredim claim that Turner, who worked for the OU as a mashgiach, isn't a real rabbi because he doesn't lead a congregation or a school –  has pleaded not guilty in a Spring Valley court today to seven counts of committing a criminal sexual act and child endangerment.

Turner is accused of sexually molesting a boy at least seven times.

Police believe there may be other victims who have not yet come forward.

Turner is scheduled to return to court on November 17.

[Hat Tip for the video, added at 2:30 pm: 613 Enforcer.]

Comments

[jancsipista.]

i knew it he claims the child made him go it,since he is also a child never developed mentally he will be found not guilty by way of being prevented to mature like other non hassidik children

[Isa]

Folks:
It is REAL easy to become a rabbi, especially of the first type and especially if you are 'connected'

By the way, the third position, I cannot get confirmation on it-probably a theoretical position.

All you need is a piece of paper

We have a system today in which there are really 3 levels of smicha and a 4th category that we allow to use the title Rabbi even though they don't really have a smicha and can't give smicha under our system.

All 4 from lowest level to highest:

1) Rav u'manhig
Really just permission to use the title Rabbi. Just a community leader/teacher. No permission to give wide psak and likely no right to give smicha to others.

One caveat, such an individual may have been given a very narrow right by their teacher to give psak in a very narrow area to a very limited degree. Beyond that, they must forward questions to a recognized posek.

The following 3 groups can give smicha at their level and below:

2)
Yoreh Yoreh can give psak except in more specialized areas like Dinei Nidah and can't be a judge.

3) Yadin Yadin can be a judge and rule in dinei Nidah.

4) There is a level of smicha that deals with making rulings in regard to Temple work. Obviously, not as practical an area (for now) and as far as I know is not widely given. Usually, people giving/receiving such smicha today are people who have strong emunah in regard to the immediate coming of the Moshiach.
This is called Yechachin Yechachin

[Isa]

"""the third position"""
correction I meant fourth level

[Molested as a Boy]

This is due to Spinmeister Yossi Gestetner! He spoke to News 12 and to ABC7 and in both he said Turner aint a Rabbi

[613ENFORCER]

Kenneth Gribetz is extremely comfortable around these "Non Practicing Rabbis"
All the misfits seem to seek his counsel!

[SkepticalYid]

He's listed in OU records online as a Rabbi. The OU wouldn't call him a rabbi unless he had a smicha they recognized.

[devorah]

How exhausted poor Kenny looks! He has the busiest practice on the East coast representing these scum and he himself was caught wearing a dress. He had been disbarred:

"Ordered that pursuant to Judiciary Law ? 90, effective immediately, Kenneth Gribetz is commanded to continue to desist and refrain from (1) practicing law in any form, either as principal or as agent, clerk, or employee of another, (2) appearing as an attorney or counselor-at-law before any court, Judge, Justice, board, commission, or other public authority, (3) giving to another an opinion as to the law or its application or any advice in relation thereto, and (4) holding himself out in any way as an attorney and counselor-at-law.

19960715"

[Bfeirush in Fartscroll]

I'll accept Kenny's brand of fun any day over raping a boy. This Turner is scum. Give KG credit he bounced back from some seriously embarrassing shite, and he looks awful in heals and garters so glad to see he's only sporting Syms these days. One can only wonder if he made off with the handcuffs Vesti wore before he was killed, I'm sure more than just that was missing from the evidence locker after the Legeros trial.

Hey Turner you scum, take that gemara you were holding as a prop in court and shove it so far up your ass your breath will start to smell like shit. Oh wait, your breath already smells like shit, you a cornhole eating scumbag.

[Rebitzman]

Isa, you are correct. It is easy to "earn" the title "rabbi" , and the Orthdox don't wear stripes to help us identify what level rabbi they are.

That said - the man claimed to be a rabbi, was acknowledged to be a rabbi UNTIL he was arrested (when suddenly, he was no longer a rabbi) by the OU and other "mainstream" orthodox organizations, ergo.......he's a rabbi.

What "level" of rabbi? Why dies it matter?

[Abracadabra]

LIST OF EXCUSES TO HELP HAREIDI APOLOGISTS

Please just refer to the number in front of the excuse you want to offer.

List created by AH-PEE-CHORUS with additions (where indicated) by Abracadabra, Rebitzman, and Mendel Mendel.

1. He's not Charedi. Shmarya photoshopped his picture.
2. He's not a REAL Charedi. He just dressed and acted like one.
3. He couldn’t have done it, he once gave tseddaka.
4. He was forced to rape children (substitute the crime as needed) by secular Jews.
5. The victims weren’t children but rather little actors who entrapped him.
6. He misunderstood certain parts of the Torah and thought he was doing a mitzvah.
7. He's a true tzaddik. No futher defense needed.
8. The accusers and their families are lying Anti-Semites.
9. Its loshon hara so that makes it not true.
10. Who cares what he did? Somebody was oiver the prohibition of mesira and that is what we should be concerned with.
11. If there weren’t 2 adult male witnesses to the act it never happened or doesn’t matter.
12. We must be 'dan lekaf zechut'...and by this I don’t mean the victims or their families, chas v'sholem, OF COURSE THEY ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED. But we must give the benefit of trust and support to the poor predator.
13. This is terrible PR for the Frum community and Klal Yisrael. This should not have been reported to the police, but rather dealt with by a reputable Beis Din which can handle the problem according to Daas Toirah. (Abra)
14. He was framed by people out to extort money from him or his family (rachmana l'tzlan). (Abra)
15. It doesn't matter what he did, if he becomes a prisoner in a Goiyish country we have to collect Pidyon Shvuyim funds to free him! (Abra)
16. He is innocent unless proven guilty. Hareidim use the principals of the USA legal system to defend themselves when it's convenient, yet at the same time reject that system, saying that only their inept Beis Din is valid. Additionally, if a Hareidi criminal takes a plea bargain, Hareidi apologists say he was never “proven” guilty and therefore consider him to be innocent. (Abra)
17. What difference does it all make; he has certainly done tshuvah. (Mendl)
18. This is just another example of that ‘expletive’ self-hating Jew, Shmarya. (Variation: ‘Expletive’-you, Shmarya.) (Rebtz)

[Litvish]

Here's another one:

19. If it wasn't reported on VIN or the Jewish Press it never happened.

[Abracadabra]

He looks like a Rabbi.
He talks like a Rabbi.
He walks like a Rabbi.
(He even probably even smells like a Rabbi.)
He was given semicha to be a Rabbi (Rabbinic Ordination).
He was addressed as "Rabbi" by students and others.
He says he's a Rabbi.
The OU said he was a Rabbi.

But a "Professional" Hareidi Apologist trying to do damage control runs around telling news stations that he is NOT a Rabbi or that he's not a "real" Rabbi.

Hmmm - this is a really hard one to figure out...

[jewishwhistleblower]

1) Turner was a Rabbinic Field Representative for the OU. That was his title. You may notice the first word in the title is Rabbinic (as opposed to non-Rabbinic).

I have been unable to find the name of any Rabbinic Field Representative working for the OU that is not a Rabbi. Does anyone have any contrary information.

I do not understand how anyone can believe that Turner was not a Rabbi. It is clear he is.

2) As to the reporting of abuse by our rabbis/leaders to the police, I would also add (to comments in previous threads) that our rabbonim routinely interfere with determinations by the courts as to protecting children. See this weeks opinion piece:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/opinion/religious_courts_are_treating_agunot_unfairly

Religious Courts Are Treating Agunot Unfairly
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Rivka Haut And Susan Aranoff Special To The Jewish Week
...
Leah is another agunah who is being pressured to re-litigate issues already adjudicated in civil court. After a civil court reviewed evidence of her husband sexually molesting their child, the court issued a “no contact” order barring him from even seeing the child. Fearing to expose her child to further danger, Leah refuses to re-litigate any issue concerning her child in the beit din. The beit din therefore refuses to help her obtain a get.
...

[Abracadabra]

Another thing the spinmeisters are doing is trying to distract everyone with all this "He wasn't really a Rabbi" talk. Well, if he wasn't "really" a Rabbi, he acted like a "holy Chasidic man" with that big gigantic yarmulka (skull cap), huge peyos (sidecurls), unruly beard (Chassidim consider beards holy and therefore do not cut them), long black coat-jacket circa 1650 AD (I have no clue why they consider this holy, but I think they think that avoiding dressing in modern style clothing is holy, although there is no source for this in the Torah (Bible) they proport to follow).

So, maybe he wasn't a "real" Rabbi. He was still Ultra-Orthodox, Hareidi, Chassidic, and clearly belonged and was accepted as a card carrying member of a Jewish Ultra-Orthodox sect which claims to be ultra pious and holy.

And he raped children ("alegedly").

And "Real" Rabbis and other adults in his community knew he preyed on children and did not report him to police.

The shame for Jewish Orthodoxy at large is huge, no matter how much "damage control" the spinmeisters fool themselves into believing they are doing.

[maven]

Technically, no one has real semicha, of course, as that was lost a long time ago. But currently, l'halacha, there's "real rabbi" (not yet convicted of a crime) and "not a real rabbi" (after publicly acknowledged as a criminal).

[No Light]

Ding ding ding! Maven is the winner!

It's all so easy, we don't even need the numbered list any more.

Thanks maven, I'll high-five you over the FM mechitza once I've changed into my heels.

['Yechiel']

Moishe Turner is a long known pervert. He is not a rabbi in rabbinical matters. He has no semicha of any sort. He was a substitute rebbe in the local yeshivas for several years. Actually, I always viewed him as a total failure; a child who never matured... For as long as I have known him, I have been hearing rumors of all sorts. I'd like to see him off the streets at last.
BTW, where's Lebovits hanging out these days?

[flat earth]

Not worthy of the Journal News or did I just miss it?