D.A.'s Kid Gloves Treatment Of Haredi Criminals Questioned As Far Back As 1994

Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes' alleged kid gloves treatment of haredi criminals was questioned at least as far back as 1994, when America's leading newspaper criticized Hynes for going way too easy on haredi criminals.

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

That paper? The New York Times.

Writing in The Jewish Week, Hella Winston details some of the Times' complaints in 1994 about Hynes:

…[A] 1994 editorial in the Times — written when Hynes had been in office for only five years — asserted that “The delicate balance between being a politician and being a prosecutor has been most evident in District Attorney Charles J. Hynes’ dealings with Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish population” and took the DA to task on a number of counts.

Specifically, the paper noted that Hynes’ then adviser on Jewish affairs, deputy district attorney Charles Posner, was in violation of ethical guidelines barring any ADA from serving as an official of a political committee, club or organization; in addition to his position as an ADA, Posner also served as the president of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Flatbush.

The editorial also mentioned a 1994 case involving the kidnapping of a teenager by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans. There, Hynes’ office initially sought to drop the case and then, after the FBI and federal prosecutors got involved, entered into a plea agreement that would have imposed only probation and community service. The plea was later overturned by a State Supreme Court judge, and Helbrans ended up spending two years in prison.…

Winston also reports extensive criticism of Hynes from legal experts, a former employee, and activists.

And she also reports this:

…Other examples of Hynes’ apparent special treatment of Orthodox crime suspects abound. In a July 1998 column for Newsday (now archived on the NYPD Confidential blog) Leonard Levitt reported that the mother of 29-year-old Crown Heights resident Simon Jacobson, who was accused of bilking an elderly tenant out of her life savings, reached out to communtity liason Henna White. The case was assigned to the Rackets Bureau, and White’s husband ended up representing Jacobson. According to Levitt, despite being given apparently ample documentation of Jacobson’s dealings, the district attorney dismissed the case for lack of evidence.…

Winston's piece is much longer than what I've posted here, and it contains many more allegations and attacks on Hynes.

Read it here.

Comments

[jancsibacsi]

Of COURSE WHERE THERE IS MUTUAL INTEREST PARTNERS IN CRIME FOLLOWS ITS A NO BRAINER,THEHASSIDIM AND HYNES WERE ARE PARTNERS IN CRIME.

[Jeff]

The editorial also mentioned a 1994 case involving the kidnapping of a teenager by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans.

That was the case documented in the book entitled, "Tzaddik". The boy's mother had one lone ally in one of the detectives, which was fortunate because the city turned its back on her.

One thing I remember clearly - when she went public (which she had to do because she got NO help from the religious authorities), she received a constant barrage of phone calls - death threats, predictions of eternal damnation (despite my nephew's stubborn insistence that frum Jews don't believe in it), threats of violence. The reason I bring it up is that some of the callers sympathized with her dilemma, but were enraged that she'd broken their cardinal rule - you don't inform on other Jews to gentile authorities. They wouldn't have cared if she'd had a dozen children kidnapped - in the end, protecting the privacy of the collective was all that mattered.

It illustrates the wagons-in-a-circle mentality that characterizes their world (including the Modern Orthodox). This obsession with keeping things hidden is symptomatic of addictive illness. The entire frum world is like one huge, extended alcoholic family.

[Jeff]

Correction: The Zaddik: The Battle for a Boy's Soul , by Elaine Grudin Denholtz.

[jancsibacsi]

jeff-- The entire frum world is like one huge, extended alcoholic family.
Thats exactly the right description you hit the nail on its head:)

[No Light]

Can you imagine the outcry if this involved muslims? People would be ranting and howling, claiming it was proof of "creeping Sharia".

Good job Jews are so wholesome and pious, and can be trusted to deal with things "in-house"...