“There isn’t a single e-mail, a single letter, a single memo, either originating from the D.A.’s office or addressed to it, that so much as mentions any attempt by the D.A. to seek a change in the extradition treaty,” Mr. Lesher said. “It’s just inconceivable that such important negotiation on such a detailed issue could have taken place and not left a trace in the documentary record.”
Charles Hynes
Michael Lesher finally got his FOIL documents from the Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes. And Lesher says the documents show Hynes did nothing to try to get the extradtion treaty between Israel and the US changed so Mondrowitz could be extradited.
The NY Times reports:
“There isn’t a single e-mail, a single letter, a single memo, either originating from the D.A.’s office or addressed to it, that so much as mentions any attempt by the D.A. to seek a change in the extradition treaty,” Mr. Lesher said. “It’s just inconceivable that such important negotiation on such a detailed issue could have taken place and not left a trace in the documentary record.”
Hynes rejects Lesher's claim:
In 2009, [Hynes] said on the syndicated radio show “Talkline with Zev Brenner” that his office, led by Rhonnie Jaus, the chief of his sex crimes bureau, “convinced the State Department to bring the case to the Israeli government to change the extradition treaty.”
Mr. Hynes reiterated his stance in an e-mail to The Times this week.…
[B]ut the new documents obtained by Mr. Lesher provide no evidence that Ms. Jaus or anyone in the office tried to lobby American or Israeli authorities to change the extradition rules.
…Jaus said that the documents released to Mr. Lesher did not show the full scope of the office’s efforts, noting that more than 280 pages in the file were withheld.…
Those withheld pages by Hynes own admission are mainly mainly internal documents, including memos between staff D.A. staff.
Jaus has been Hynes sex crimes chief since 1992. But she told the Times that she didn't work on the Mondrowitz case until eight years later, and that only happened because the US State Department contacted her because it had learned Mondrowitz was planning on returning to the US to live.
Jaus told the times that any hope of arresting Mondrowitz ended when he did not return. (More on this below.)
Besides that contact with the State Department in 2000, Jaus did nothing to try to further the extradition of Mondrowitz until 2003, when she called the State Department once. In 2006, she made two calls. These three calls were primarily made to check on the status of the treaty, she told the Times:
“If you can’t extradite him because of an existing treaty, what can you do?” [Jaus] said. “But our position was very well known: We always wanted to extradite this person.”
But the truth is different from what Jaus claims.
When the treaty changed in January 2007, she did not ask for Mondrowitz's extradition. Instead, she waited more than four months to make the request – even though Mondrowitz was supposedly a high priority for her office.
We know this because the D.A.'s office told me yesterday that it asked for Mondrowitz's extradition in April 2007.
Further, there were credible reports of Mondrowitz being sighted in New Jersey before the treaty wa changed. He was allegedly using a wheelchair to help disguise his identity, and had traveled to the US on passport that was not his own.
There appears to be no mention of these sightings in the documents Lesher received from the D.A.
That brings us to Jaus' excuse for the absence of evidence supporting her claims and Hynes' claims from those Lesher documents. In the words of the Times, "Jaus said that the documents released to Mr. Lesher did not show the full scope of the office’s efforts, noting that more than 280 pages in the file were withheld."
This is exactly why it was wrong to, for want of a better term, pimp the D.A.'s decision to release the documents, conveniently announced to coincide with the D.A.'s much more important announcement that charges against the alleged Crown Heights rapists would be dropped.
Hynes' office botched that case and was under intense media scrutiny for it, just as it has been for his sometimes bizarre behavior regarding haredi child sexual abuse cases.
The announcement that Hynes would – finally, after years of Lesher lawsuits – give Lesher some documents should have been treated skeptically – as Jaus has now clearly shown.
Unfortunately, one Jewish newspaper did not exercise skepticism and gave Hynes' promise to release some documents a plug.
Perhaps its editors will note the words of Rhonnie Jaus and realize they erred. But they most likely won't.
Recent Mondrowitz Posts:
D.A. Didn't Ask For Avrohom Mondrowitz's Extradition Until April 2007.
Indicted Pedophile Avrohom Mondrowitz Allegedly Works With Haredi City's Troubled Kids.
What Was On Avrohom Mondrowitz's Computer When He Was Arrested?