Charges Against Satmar Principal Who Beat Student Dropped, Despite Evidence Against Him

Charges against Rabbi Meilech Spitzer, a 60-year-old Satmar yeshiva principal accused of assaulting a young student, were dismissed earlier today after the boy and his parents refused to sign a complaint and the local district attorney failed to find another way to prosecute him.

Charges Against Satmar Principal Who Beat Student Dropped, Despite Evidence Against Him
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

In Rockland County, beating a teacher beating a defenseless little boy in a yeshiva classroom does not necessarily result in a prison sentence – or even a trial.

Charges against Rabbi Meilech Spitzer, a 60-year-old Satmar yeshiva principal accused of assaulting a young student, were dismissed earlier today after the boy and his parents refused to sign a complaint, the Journal News reported, and the local district attorney failed to find another way to prosecute him.

Spitzer, the long-time principal of Satmar’s United Talmudical Academy in Rockland County, had been charged with slapping a 10-year-old student so hard that the child had visible bruises to an eye and ear, and swelling to the side of his face.

Spitzer was charged in February with third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child, both misdemeanors.

Justice Alan Simon dismissed the charges today because prosecutors and police could not get a signed criminal complaint from the child or his parents.

While some, including the allegedly weak local district attorney who is said to be under the thumb of powerful haredi rabbis who wield their communities' bloc votes like swords, claim that there is no legal way to prosecute Spitzer if the victim or his family refuse to cooperate, others disagree.

But even if the D.A. is correct, it does not necessarily follow that the order of protection barring Spitzer from having contact with the boy should be lifted.

Even so, Judge Simon lifted it despite copious evidence that Spitzer harmed the child.

Robert Conklin, Spitzer’s attprney moved for the dismissal of the charges because 90 days had passed without a move by the D.A. to bring the case to court and because the charges against Spitzer were “hearsay.”

“[For the case to continue, prosecutors] must file a supporting deposition signed by an individual who experienced the incident first-hand,” Conklin told the judge.

“The people did try to prosecute this case. We were not able to convince the family,” an executive district attorney, Gary Lee Heavner, told the judge.

Hasidic communities like Satmar are rife with intimidation, retaliation, shunning and bullying of victims and their families who cooperate with police investigations and prosecutions.

So far, neither the Rockland County district attorney or his Brooklyn counterpart have done much to prosecute hasidim who threaten, extort, punish or attempt to bribe victims and witnesses.

In much celebrated case, Brooklyn’s D.A., Charles J. Hynes, indicted four Satmar hasidim for illegally tampering with the victim in the Nechemya Weberman child sex abuse case and her now-husband.

But after the spotlight dimmed, Hynes allowed three of the men to plead guilty to low level misdemeanors and receive extremely light sentences. The fourth victim, who faces much more serious charges, has allegedly been told that after the fall elections (unless those elections unseat Hynes) he will be allowed to plead out to a much lesser charge and receive little or no prison time.

Despite the rampant and clear violations of the law, Rockland County and neighboring Orange County (the location of the Satmar Village of Kiryas Joel) have never prosecuted a hasid for intimidation, coercion or bribery of a hasidic victim of hasidic crime or of a witness supporting such a victim.

[Hat Tip: Devorah.]

Realated Posts:

Rabbi Meilech Spitzer Charged With Assaulting Child.

Rabbi Meilech Spitzer Pleads Not Guilty.

Family Of Beaten Child Refuses To Cooperate With DA; In Its Awful Coverage, News 12 Labels Haredi PR Hack A "Journalist.”

Comments

[justme]

When Judge Simon is not manhandling interns, he's protecting adults who punch children.

[S M L]

A change of statute is called for. The State has a compelling interest in putting such abusers behind bars sufficient to require testimony from those involved. It may require taking action against Satmar as a RICO or some such. This is beyond the NY state system to handle. The parents are cowed. This is such a stinking corruption of the ways Jews (or any decent people) should behave towards children that it's positively nauseating to read about. Haredi adults deserve each other. The children deserve better.

[anuran]

The Cosa Nostra has nothing on the Kosher Nostra

[Abir ben Schmuel]

Woodside Park, London, England, 1962. I was five'ish or six'ish when I came home from a Jewish primary school looking like that and unable to read or write to boot in either English or Hebrew. My father, who himself was an educator with a lot of experience was having none of it. I cannot imagine that charges were discussed but I was immediately transfered to another school across the road with a 1/3 rd Jewish enrollment (including many boys who had also been withdrawn from the aforementioned institution) run by a very competent C of E minister who knew how to get boys to learn the "three "r"s in a peaceful and civilized manner. But thus ended my formal Jewish education. As I write this from the distance of a half century and from the U.S. of A, I know that London readers will have no problem identifying the institution involved. Many of the teachers of my time at least had an excuse: they were for the most part survivors of the Shoah.

What's the excuse for this contemporary pedagogic wunderkind and his ilk who hush up incidents at their yeshivot and defend the most heinous of actions? None in my opinion. They need to be locked up by the civil authorities, preferably in institutions with a large Moslem population (which these days are easy to find). Knowing our people as I do, it wouldn't take long for the experiences of a few to modify the behavior of many.

[Bas Melech]

No way the family would press charges, if they want to remain in the community! Doesn't the State have a responsibility to protect children? It prosecutes child endangerment and welfare cases initiated by social services.

[S M L]

@Bas Melech:

It requires a prosecutor with sufficient zeal and sufficiently independent of the Haredi bloc vote's power to push the issue to the maximum and to subpoena witnesses, including the parents.

[jancsibacsi]

This is exactly how i was treated as a child in heder in europe out rebbi teache used to hit us with a stick very painfull and when we got a poytch meaning a slap in the face it wasnt even that bad compared to getting hit with a stick once i told my father that he the rebbi is hitting me too much my father told him not to hit me he stopped for a few days and resumed hitting nothing fazes them they think the hassidim that its their god given right to hit children mercilessly.

[Jeff]

It's time for angry mobs with torches and pitchforks. Seriously, I'm not even joking. If civil authorities won't act, or can't, it's time for some vigilante justice. I'd like to see these smug, self-satisfied fucks cowering in their homes in terror.

Do the Haredi pukes believe Hynes merits olam haba for his decades of service to their communities, or has he simply been another useful but disposable goy?

[Jeff]

Furthermore, Satmar is an abomination. It has no right even to exist.

[Jeff]

And where is our old friend Deremes, I wonder? Why isn't he here to blame this one on the Zionists as well?

[Carlos Danger]

Jeff, why are you so bitter all the time?

[jancsibacsi]

: Carlos Danger Why does it bother you that jeff is bitter,he has every right to be bitter so do i ,you are not jeff so you cannot judge his feelings i know exactly why he is so bitter,its because evil rigns in our midst,the evil is hassidik fanaticism.

[S M L]

"...It's time for angry mobs with torches and pitchforks. ..."

I'm not so sure. Something more selective than a mob scene that can be spun as a pogrom is called for. Grab this principal as he walks home one dark evening and beat the hell out of his face while letting him know that if word leaks out that he's touched another kid the beating will begin below the belt. Or, as Ian Fleming once wrote:

"We'll make it a Brooklyn stomping. Eighty per center. Okay with you . . . Mr. Bond?"

Should be effective. People who beat children should be pulverized. Why waste taxpayer dollars on prison for them?

[Gevezener Chusid]

Almost everyone I know used to tell stories about how they were smacked around as children by the rebbes in cheder. They even joked about it!

It was accepted practice in the post-war generation. It happened in Catholic schools and private schools as well. I think at one time the laws permitted teachers to strike their students.

Even as a kid, I was always horrified by the equanimity with which people accepted this outrage - and I was never hit by any teacher anywhere.

Sadly, the next generation passes it on.

[Kosher Ham]

The next logical step would be for whatever Child Protection Agency the family lives within its jurisdiction is to remove the child from his family due to the parents neglect in moving forward to assist in prosecuting this case. That's the only legal avenue that I know of that's open to the governmental agencies.

But, it's a question of if there's enough decency & will left in those agencies that can exercise this option or if there's too much political pressure.

This much I know: without even some sort of remediation training, Rabbi Meilech Spitzer will be able to do this type of behavior again & again.

Satmar, what is to be gained be an incident like this? It only leads to recidivism since there are no consequences for this type of completely illegal & immoral behavior.

[MonseyLuke]

This is the Gestetner termed "slap happy dude." He actually condoned the practice. I do not understand why Child Protective Services does not arrest the parents. It is a disgrace and if Satmar wants to intimidate witnesses and the DA does nothing, I would at least thing the Commissioner of Social Services would.

Luke.

[FlatEarth]

And compare this to the paintball attack.

[MonseyLuke]

Oy... *think*

[Jeff]

"But, it's a question of if there's enough decency & will left in those agencies that can exercise this option or if there's too much political pressure."

Bear in mind it's in an area in which the Satmar hierarchy calls the shots.

[MonseyLuke]

"But, it's a question of if there's enough decency & will left in those agencies that can exercise this option or if there's too much political pressure."

Bear in mind it's in an area in which the Satmar hierarchy calls the shots."

Jeff:

The DA alone noted witness intimidation when the story originally broke. The doctor who reported this in conjunction with Child Protective Services would be enough to have the parents charged.

So, unfortunately, we know the answer to your question.

Luke.

[MonseyLuke]

Speaking of scum, and as a quick aside, all you CSL lovers, google "st_Lawrence1" It is a twitter account for CSL. It is a scream.

Luke.

[FlatEarth]

"st_Lawrence1" Especially the Maressa Nicosia ones....

[Hal]

I'm feeling embarrassed to be a Jew right about now.

[Devorah]

Me, too. Two cut in line ahead of me at Costco today. They just pushed me over without saying anything. I pushed them back. I'm sick of taking their s*** and arrogance. Pushy bitches with 11 kids in tow.