Haredi Neighborhood Watch Assault Trial Begins Monday

Two haredi brothers accused of beating a black teenager while patrolling an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood are set to go on trial Monday in a case with striking similarities to Florida's Trayvon Martin shooting.

Eliyahu Werdesheim

Md. neighborhood watch trial set against Fla. fury
SARAH BRUMFIELD • AP

BALTIMORE — Two brothers accused of beating a black teenager while patrolling an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood are set to go on trial Monday in a case with similarities to the Trayvon Martin shooting.

The brothers, who are white and Jewish, have claimed self-defense, saying the teen was holding a nail-studded board. Local civil rights activists hope the Martin case will draw more attention to what they believe was racial profiling by neighborhood watch vigilantes.

Eliyahu and Avi Werdesheim are accused of beating a 15-year-old boy who was walking through a Baltimore neighborhood in November 2010. The brothers pulled up next to the teen in a vehicle, then got out and "surrounded him," according to charging documents. The passenger threw the teen to the ground and the driver hit him in the head with a hand-held radio and patted him down.

The teen remembered the driver yelling, "You wanna (mess) with us, you don't belong around here, get outta here!" according to court documents, which do not identify which brother was driving.

While the teen struggled, a third man got out of a van and kneed the teen, pinning him to the ground. The teen told police that he stopped struggling and the third man continued to search him, while the teen insisted he didn't have anything on him.

Eliyahu Werdesheim told the Baltimore Jewish Times that he was acting in self-defense because the teen was holding the piece of wood. The teen picked up the board during the encounter, but put it back down, said J. Wyndal Gordon, an attorney for the teen's family. He said the family did not want to speak publically.

After the trio left, the teen called police and was taken to a hospital with a cut on the back of his head and a broken wrist, according to court documents. Using a photo book compiled by investigators, the teen later identified Eliyahu Werdesheim, now 24, as one of the men who assaulted him. He was arrested after about 10 days; his now 21-year-old brother was charged two months later.

The brothers are charged with second-degree assault, false imprisonment and carrying a deadly weapon (the hand-held radio). The pair face up to 13 years in prison if convicted on all three counts. A third man, identified in a lawsuit brought by the teen's family as Ronald Rosenbluth, does not face charges.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said investigators don't believe Rosenbluth was involved in the beating. Rosenbluth said he doesn't believe there was a third person and he was only called to the scene after the incident.

Law enforcement officials emphasize that neighborhood watchers' responsibility is to report crime, and leave interventions to police. Most follow the rules, and confrontations are rare.

"We owe a lot of our success to communities that have stepped up and partnered with police. They help us out," Guglielmi said. "But when they step too far, we have to hold people accountable."

In the Florida case, authorities charged neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman this month with second-degree murder in Martin's death Feb. 26. Zimmerman claims self-defense, but Martin's family claims he targeted Martin mainly because he was black. Zimmerman's father is white and his mother Hispanic.

It's unusual to have a trial in which the allegations mirror a case so prominent in the news, said Steven Levin, a former federal prosecutor.

"Since the Trayvon Martin case, people cannot help but think about that case and draw comparisons, whether they are fair or not," he said.

In the Werdesheim case, the six trial postponements could significantly hinder the defense's case, Levin said. However, the charges against Zimmerman since the last postponement may mean jurors won't feel that they need to somehow set things right through the case they are deciding.

Eliyahu Werdesheim was suspended from the neighborhood group while Avi was never a member, according to Nathan Willner, general counsel for Shomrim of Baltimore, a group that patrols neighborhoods with a large concentration of Jewish residents and institutions in the Baltimore area. Shomrim, which is Hebrew for guard, has about 30 volunteer, unarmed responders. It was founded in 2005 to provide security and gather information for police, Willner said.

While the case has not garnered the attention the Martin shooting has, Cortly C.D. Witherspoon, president of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, has organized protests outside the courthouse during court hearings and has been frustrated by the postponements.

"We feel that justice should have been served long ago. I would contend that the urgency for justice (in this case) is affected by the Trayvon Martin case because of the similarities," he said.

Members of the area's Jewish community also rallied outside the courthouse when the brothers appeared in court to enter not guilty pleas in February. Jakob Lurman, the owner of a barbershop, was among them.

"I have a business in the community. Shomrim do good work," Lurman said. "I don't know what happened in that case, but I wanted to show support."

Jewish neighborhood watch groups in New York City have faced accusations of unnecessary force against blacks, creating tensions between the Jewish and black communities. That hasn't yet happened in Baltimore, according to the Rev. Alvin Gwynn Sr., president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. The organization of predominantly black clergy met with leaders of the area's Jewish community to keep relationships between the two communities strong.

"We were already working with them when this came up," Gwynn said. "It hasn't done much damage yet."

Baltimore is a city that's 64 percent black, and the jury will likely have eight or nine black members. So race will be a factor, said University of Baltimore School of Law professor and practicing attorney Byron Warnken.

"What the defense has to do is completely downplay that," he said, and show the force was necessary to prevent a crime.

Susan Green, an attorney for Avi Werdesheim, said last month that she hoped the media coverage would not create an atmosphere that would make it difficult for her client, but declined to comment further. The attorney for Eliyahu Werdesheim did not return calls for comment.

Related Posts:

Baltimore Shomrim Member Arrested For Assault.

Blacks And Jews At Odds Over Shomrim Street Patrol.

Lawyer Claims Bias In State's Decision To Drop Felony Charge Against Shomrim Member.

Comments

[anuran]

Justice would have been served long ago if it hadn't been for all the postponements.

[Yoel Mechanic]

Anyone ever consider having ethnically diverse neighborhood patrols? Just a thought. I would like to think that the neighborhood watchers have a wide range of training, and patrol many neighborhoods and are used to ethnic diversity. Perhaps there needs to be a confederation of neighborhood watches, and the various watches can meet periodically with each other for exchange of information, and just general socializing

[Ksil]

Not haredi. Not sure where you got that info.

[Dr. Dave]

Thank G-d they didn't have guns!

[TheRealJoe]

Quick lets call in all of the F.M troops to call for a life sentence I mean the guy is wearing a Yarmulkah and is helping patrol a mostly Frum community so he MUST be guilty, has the many cases where so called victims from the Black community who turn out to have been not so innocent taught you anything???

[Litvish]

What is the haredi neighborhood in Baltimore where they were patrolling?

There are plenty of black hats and yarmulkas near the yeshivo and Pikeville but haredi?

No ,they are not by any stretch of the imagination haredi.

[rebeljew]

The Trayvon Martin case does not appear to have been case of racial profiling. I am not sure what that case has in relation to this one, unless racist thug groups have put a bounty on the defendants heads.

[heshyfriedman]

The secular liberals and their bleeding hearts live in lilly white neighborhoods far removed from the inner city areas where tens of thousands of chareidim live mixed with Black and Hispanic neighbors. The real phoneys are the liberals who preach tolerance but would never live in the inner city. The last twenty years have seen a vast improvement in Nyc racial relations. Here is why. There was a ten percent decrease in the white population,many Italions who harrassed Chareidim in Boro park,Flatbush and Bensenhurst. A five percent decrease in Black population and an incredible influx of over one million chinese residents as well as Russians Mexicans and other third world immigrants. An influx of yuppies that are pushing out Blacks in the Bed stuy area bordering Williamsburg. Nyc is not the same. Chareidim have never been safer. Its far safer to be Chareidi in NYc than Many parts of Israel. Things are looking very good in NYC as Charedei Judaism becomes Judaisms future. There are already a dozen chareidi cops with beards and long peyos. Israeli leaders can learn from NYC chareidim how to secure a neighborhood. Maybe when the chareidim become the majority, Israel will become terror-free.

[Deb]

Shomrim, which is Hebrew for guard, has about 30 volunteer, unarmed responders

Not true! To quote the article

"carrying a deadly weapon (the hand-held radio)."

So these are an armed group of volunteers.

[Yoel Mechanic]

Do the people who are being guarded have any say about the guards (eg shomrim)? Who guards the guardians and who are they accountable to? In some ideal world, the community would have some say in this, and hopefully will demand a professional code of conduct.

[Deb]

What are needed are more gated communities to keep the rif-raf out.

[seymour]

Posted by: Yoel Mechanic | April 22, 2012 at 05:56 PM

great idea most lily will reduce the tension and many problems

What are needed are more gated communities to keep the rif-raf out.

Posted by: Deb | April 22, 2012 at 08:52 PM

if you mean the frummas I agree

[seymour]

the simple problem with this case and the case in Fl is that the patrol broke the most important rule do not leave your car call the police

they are the eyes and ears of the police

of course if the see someone being beaten up that would be different but in both of these cases that did not happen

[Deb]

What are needed are more gated communities to keep the rif-raf out.

Posted by: Deb | April 22, 2012 at 08:52 PM

if you mean the frummas I agree

Posted by: seymour | April 22, 2012 at 08:55 PM

My daughter attends medical school and has an apartment in a complex where students rent. It is completely gated and no one enters without passing a guard or enters with a special magnetic key to open the gates. You can't be too careful this day and age.

[jancsibacsi]

heshyfriedman-Oh yes we all jews will be hassidim with their lange dangling phallic symbol payes the symbol of a dick and then when all of the jews will be hassidim the self mockery of all jewdism will be complete we will all be complete goilems like you heshy

[Anonymous]

They are not Haredi.

Also, seriously guys, are ya'll in lower school still? Is everything longer than it is wide a phallic symbol?

[Me]

Not haredi. They're about as National Religious as it gets. One of them was an Israeli special ops guy.

[disgusted]

To Shmarya, if you are accused of a crime and and you are Jewish, you are by definition Hareidi. Hey Shmarya, too bad you didn't live in the Middle Ages when the Church could just execute these kids immediately. I'd bet you'd like that, wouldn't you?

[seymour]

Maybe when the chareidim become the majority, Israel will become terror-free.

Posted by: heshyfriedman | April 22, 2012 at 07:40 PM

a worse terror will rise in Israel, chareidim

and anyway do you think you can daven away the terror attacks

dozens of police with payos are you for real I think there are maybe 2 or 3

[who knows]

I wonder why blacks are always portrayed as victims of violence while statistically they are they are much greater perpetrators of violence then any other group?

As for Tayvon Martin case as well as for this case, why do we see the lynch in the media before all the facts are out?

Notice that during the last couple of months thousands of murders and tens of thousands of severe beatings were done by blacks and did not attract any media attention.

Is it PC gone wild or there is a more sinister agend behind all these witch hunts?

[Aussie2]

Rot in prison boys

[Lubavitchers are Christians]

OMG

http://twitchy.com/2012/04/23/twitter-lynch-mob-now-that-george-zimmerman-is-out-on-bail-lets-kill-him/

[Eliezer]

The trial has again been postponed so lawyers can argue for both a change of venue and a halt in proceedings until the Trayvon Martin furor dies down; the argument by lawyers is scheduled for tomorrow.

[dh]

Yes, who knows, there is indeed a more sinister thing... or things. And they are called Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. If anything happens to a black individual they believe it is because of the color of skin. And they are both rabid anti-semites.