A 17-year-old alleged rape victim is out for "revenge," Rabbi Nechemya Weberman claims. He aslo wants a "sex tape" made of the girl and her boyfriend to be broadcast in court.
Rabbi Nechemya Weberman
Accused Hasidic Child Rapist Says 17-Year-Old’s Accusations “Revenge”
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Supporters of Rabbi Nechemya Weberman portrayed the teenage girl he allegedly raped over a several year period as a missile about to strike the hasidic community of Williamsburg and destroy it.
They also allegedly harassed, tried to bribe and ultimately extorted the girl and her boyfriend in an attempt to get the girl to drop the charges against Weberman, who served as an unlicensed therapist, seeing young teen clients in his home – often without the normal modesty safeguards which would have made it more difficult for Weberman to sexually assault them.
Now Weberman and his attorneys are resorting to a gutter tactic – smear the victim and attack her sex life.
Weberman’s legal team reportedly told a Brooklyn judge yesterday that the victim made her accusations against Weberman when she found out Weberman had convinced her father to secretly record her having sex with a boyfriend.
The allegations – made by Weberman supports on blogs almost since the day of his arrest last year – were deemed by the NY Daily News as “explosive.”
The Daily News is widely seen as a pro-D.A. Charles Hynes paper.
Weberman’s “attorneys want to introduce the alleged “sex tape” at trial, claiming it proves that the alleged victim has a motive for accusing Weberman of rape – revenge.
“There is a motive of revenge," Weberman’s lead attorney George Farkas told the court.
The Daily News quotes an unnamed (and unlabeled) source who has not seen the videotape who claims that s/he has heard that it is “very explicit.”
The actual reason to have the tape admitted may have much more to do with embarrassing the alleged victim, who is now only 17-years-old, and her slightly older boyfriend, with the hope that fear of being exposed in that way will cause her to drop the charges against Weberman.
In 2010, Weberman accompanied the father when he went to the district attorney's office to accuse the alleged victim’s boyfriend of statutory rape.
The D.A. briefly charged the boyfriend, but dropped the charges shortly afterward.
Prosecutors say the alleged victim accused Weberman of raping her after she discovered that Weberman had alleged raped other young girls.
Citing the state’s rape shield law, prosecutor Anthea Bruffee reportedly told the court that prosecutors “strongly oppose” allowing the alleged victim’s “other sexual activities” to be raised at trial.
"You have a high hurdle to leap over," Justice John Ingram reportedly told Weberman’s legal team.
Ingram will reportedly rule in late August on the admissibility of the sex tape.
He will also rule on prosecutors' request to call witnesses who each claim Weberman raped and/or sexually abused them.
[Hat Tip: Burich.]