Letting Haredi Sex Criminals Off Easy

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has finally released an expanded list of the nearly 100 haredi pedophiles, rapists and sex criminals he says he has prosecuted.

Charles Hynes, right, and an unidentified haredi rabbi, 1994, Brooklyn

The problem is, the Post – who got the list – only released a tiny part of it.

Plus, about half of the cases Hynes claims as Kol Tzedek cases aren't. Like Kolko's case, they preceed Kol Tzedek's founding, or they were reported directly to police not to Kol Tzedek, or anti-child-sex-abuse activists like Survivors for Justice or Voice of Justice brought the cases in themselves outside the framework of Kol Tzedek.

The Jewish Week, the Guardian and the New York Times together have clearly proved this.

On top of that, CBS 2 News reported that it called the Kol Tzedek hotline, which Hynes claimed was open 24/7, 25 times over a two week period. The calls were made at various times on different days. Kol Tzedek only answered the phone two times.

All that said, here's the Post's article:

Holy hell in B’klyN
By SUSAN EDELMAN and BRAD HAMILTON • New York Post

After months of prodding, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes finally released an expanded accounting of the nearly 100 perverts he says he has prosecuted in the borough’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

He showed The Post summaries of 96 cases, that reveal a shocking pattern of rape, sodomy, incest, kidnapping and sex attacks on children.

Hynes says that he has pursued scores of predators through a program called Kol Tzedek, Hebrew for “voice of justice,” launched in 2009, and has put some despicable offenders in prison for years.

But many avoided stiff jail sentences with wrist-slap plea deals, several got no punishment, and others had charges dropped or reduced after victims backed out under community pressure.

Hynes still refused to name the defendants, insisting his unusual policy protects victims and their families from intimidation by supporters of the creeps who “don’t give a damn about victims.”

“The Mafia breaks legs or kills people, but [there’s] not the constant vilification that these people have to suffer,” he said.

The Post identified many of the cases after reviewing the summaries, which did not reveal sentences.

One involved social worker Yona Weinberg, a bar mitzvah tutor sentenced to a year in jail after he molested four boys, one in a synagogue’s ritual bath.

Another defendant repeatedly raped his own 8-year-old daughter and was convicted of a Class B felony, which carries up to 25 years in jail.

A third pervert, Brooklyn Rabbi Gershon Kranczer, fled to Israel after charges that he and his three sons repeatedly molested four young girls at the children’s home in Midwood. One whom told of being attacked for 15 years.

A serial groper grabbed the buttocks of five strangers on the street in 2009, leading to his guilty plea to forcible touching, a misdemeanor.

The jury is out on Hynes’ scorecard: 43 of the cases are still pending.

His records say 13 cases were dismissed and five defendants went to trial, with four convictions and one acquittal. Another 35 took plea deals.

The cases involved 123 victims, including 91 underage boys and girls, with seven allegations of rape, 21 of sodomy and 67 of sexual abuse.

The “vast majority” of the suspects are Orthodox Jewish; the others molested members of that community, Hynes’ office said.

In response to sharp criticism from former Mayor Ed Koch, Hynes agreed to form a task force with investigators from his office and the NYPD to find ways to bust those who threaten victims if they come forward.

But Hynes says victims too afraid to allege sex abuse are unlikely to cooperate. Sources said the DA’s rackets bureau has asked two complainants to wear hidden recorders. Neither went through with it — including a father who told of pressure to drop charges that his son was molested by Meir Descalowitz, whose case is pending until he is declared mentally fit for trial.

Another dad, whose son was abused for five years by family friend Michael Sabo, praised the DA’s “very aggressive” response.

“Based on what I told them, they got a search warrant and arrested him in three days.” Sabo’s computers were loaded with child porn, and “he didn’t have time to get rid of it.”

The father also supports Hynes’ withholding of suspects’ names until the family is ready, saying it shields them from gossip and questions.

The case ended with one of Hynes’ biggest convictions.

Sabo, a 38-year-old nurse nurse in Marine Park, pleaded guilty on May 7 to assaulting the son and a girl from another family also willing to testify. He faces 20 years to life.

Critics still claim Hynes hasn’t done enough. “He is now scrambling to respond to criticism,” said activist Ben Hirsch, a co-founder of Survivors for Justice.

“Advocates and victims have been begging Hynes to take these cases since 2006. “We’ve had to pressure him to prosecute almost every one.”

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes says he’s prosecuted 96 sex-assault suspects in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community since 2009. Of 53 closed cases, 13 were dismissed, 35 ended in plea deals and five went to trial, resulting in four convictions and one acquittal. High-profile cases include:

CASE 1

Emanuel Yegutkin, 53, the principal of a top private high school and a volunteer summer lifeguard from Ocean Parkway, is charged with repeatedly molesting three young sons of his closest friend, starting when they were as young as 7. The defendant, a politically connected figure, is pressing Hynes to drop the case, claiming a “false confession.”

CASE 2

Joseph “Uncle Joe” Passof, a retired city schoolteacher and camp counselor, was charged in March with sneaking up on a 5-year-old boy and assaulting him in a day-camp bathroom in Flatbush Park in front of another boy last summer. The top count, for a criminal sexual act with a child under 11, is a felony that carries five to 25 years in jail.

CASE 3

Nechemya Weberman, 53, an unlicensed therapist, has been charged with forcing a 16-year-old girl to perform oral sex on him during counseling sessions. The victim claims the abuse began when she was 12. Supporters of Weberman clashed with protesters at a demonstration in Williamsburg last week. Hynes said the case illustrates the way that many in the community vilify victims.

CASE 4

Another rabbi, Baruch Lebovits, 61, allegedly sodomized two teen boys and sexually abused a third. He was convicted of molesting one victim in 2010. He was serving 10 to 32 years in jail when an appeals panel overturned the verdict — which had been one of Hynes’ biggest achievements — in March. Hynes vows to retry him.

CASE 5

Brooklyn Rabbi Gershon Kranczer ducked justice. He fled to Israel after he and his three sons were charged with molesting four young girls at the kids’ home in Midwood. One girl told of abuse over 15 years. Hynes’ office unsuccessfully sought extradition.

CASE 6

Brooklyn Rabbi Joel Kolko, 65, who struck a no-jail plea in 2006 for abusing three kids, now faces charges he violated a court order of protection from one of his accusers. Cops say the creep moved in near the boy’s family, snapped his photo and leered at him. The boy’s father said he got a call warning to “back off or you’ll suffer the consequences.” The trial has been repeatedly delayed.

Comments

[thinking outloud]

I appreciate your feelings towards these men, but perhaps the title of rabbi should be removed, for no other reason but that they have shown that they don't deserve it.

(and i'm sure a bunch of them got the honorific anyway only as a result of sitting in the back of a second rate beis medrash for a couple of years ... picking their noses and little else; or for moving into the town of lakewood where the title is bestowed upon you when you update your zipcode)

By calling them Rabbi, in their sick twisted world, you are giving them respect: there is not bigger put-down in the Chareidi community than being called Mr. instead of Rabbi.

(check out the random yeshivish news websites, people go crazy when someone who they expect should be given kavod is called either Mr. or by their first name....)

[Larry]

Posted by: thinking outloud | May 20, 2012 at 04:56 AM
_or_ you're doing the charedi cover-up folks a favor by fostering the idea that no 'real' rabbi would do this type of stuff. They have the title, they shame the title, and thats the proper way to display it. The fact that people can act this way and still use the appellate shows that it is meaningless, which is more important than childishly trying to insult them (as if they ever read this blog)

[thinking outloud]

Larry,
No one is trying to insult them, rather the point I was making and perhaps you understandably missed it

(btw appellate is the court you appeal to, don't know where you were going with this, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you are using some sort of auto-correct)

is that by calling them Rabbi, you are giving them a Kavod. By referring to them by name only, without the honorific, you insult them. I would think this blog supports the latter, particularly in these situations.

[Daniel Cohen]

http://rotter.net/forum/scoops1/17682.shtml

Judith

[Moshe in Israel]

Larry,

I think that you mean appellation, not appellate.
Pronunciation: \ˌa-pə-ˈlā-shən\
Function: noun
Date: 15th century
1 : an identifying name or title : designation
2 archaic : the act of calling by a name
3 : a geographical name (as of a region, village, or vineyard) under which a winegrower is authorized to identify and market wine; also : the area designated by such a name

[Post ALL of the names!]

I think we need to see ALL these 96 names, no? Why just the "high profile" cases? The point of disclosing them is to help us keep our kids safe!

[steve]

None of the names listed are from Kol Tzedek. Hynes didn't release any names that we didn't already know. More lies and cover ups.

[God is not amused]

Cover ups = continued vitimization of children. Children are the apple of Gods eye. The penalty is going to be severe for all involved in the debauching. Nobody is getting away with anything. If they were really Rabbis they would know it.

[CHAMOR BLI DAAS]

A bit off topic, but I would suggest that the real purpose of the Asifa is to intimidate politicians by a demonstration of group solidarities. The dangers of the internet are a convenient excuse to call for a gathering.

[just saying]

Agree with chamor. It's all about politics and $ and showing who has the power... election year is coming up and so is the aguda daf yomi siyum... and we know what that is really about and why the more the merrier... got to fill the place with bodies while the rabbis all argue over who gets the private chauffeur to drive them in (of course at the exorbitant price of union fee drivers and liveries. Same reason the agudah leaders all want "private bathrooms" in their offices. E-G-O. Or did Moshe Sherrer have a weak bladder or was there a need for some privacy for other reasons? Just asking...

[just saying]

Nothing wrong with wanting to fill the place with bodies and show some political muscle... the gays and blacks and feminists all do the same when they organize million man marches... but the gays take it one step further with some gay organizations publicly backing out and saying they won't participate, as if to say you don't have all of us there, so when you do the headcount you can remember there's another million of us who stayed home.

[Speak the truth]

@failedmessiah. You should really confirm facts about cases, especially since you are listing names. A lot of your information is wrong.