"I do not know when you obtained it or from whom but because it is
sealed its contents should not be disclosed. Kindly remove any reference
in your online story to the contents of the Weiss deposition in order
not to violate the court's order and the terms of the settlement
agreement."
Rabbi Yaakov Weiss
Rubashkin Son-In-Law Tries To Suppress Proof Of Child Sexual Abuse
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The Albany Times Union published some of the admissions made by Chabad Rabbi Yaakov Weiss in a deposition in a child sexual abuse civil lawsuit against him, and now Weiss wants the paper to remove those admissions from its Website.
Weiss had already been indicted on child sexual abuse charges before the civil suit was filed. But he took a sweetheart plea deal that saw him serve a 60 days in jail and avoid registration as as a sex offender.
The families of the two victims, both 12-year-old boys, sued Weiss in civil court after the plea.
Weiss brought his case to a Monsey beit din which ruled that the families of the two victims were mosers, informers. It threatened to excommunicate both families unless the suit was withdrawn.
One family capitulated. The other did not.
But then, on the eve of the civil trial a few weeks ago, it suddenly settled with Weiss for $6,000 – far less than they had allegedly been offered before that.
As part of the settlement, the judge sealed Weiss’ deposition.
The Albany Times Union, which had Weiss’ deposition long before the settlement, recently decided to publish parts of Weiss’ deposition on one of its official blogs anyway.
Weiss cried foul.
Louis-Jack Pozner, an attorney for Weiss whose wife is the local Jewish Federation’s immediate past president, emailed the Times Union’s Law Beat blog asking that the sections of Weiss’ deposition be removed from the paper’s Website immediately.
"I do not know when you obtained it or from whom but because it is sealed its contents should not be disclosed. Kindly remove any reference in your online story to the contents of the Weiss deposition in order not to violate the court's order and the terms of the settlement agreement."
“We’ll give Pozner an ‘A’ for effort,” the the Times Union’s Law Beat blog wrote, “however, [we] already had a copy of the deposition long before the settlement. Here at Law Beat, we have no intention of censoring information that is, while unsettling, newsworthy.”
Weiss founded and lead Chabad of Colonie and taught at Maimonides Hebrew Day School in Albany.
In the deposition, Weiss admits driving the boys separately to the mikva, disrobing with each boy, and then approaching each boy and intentionally pressing his erect penis against the child’s buttocks. He also massage the shoulders of a boy.
Weiss admitted to being sexually aroused during all those acts.
Weiss' admissions in that deposition are also reportedly documented in a December 12 ruling made in the civil case against him by state Supreme Court Justice Eugene "Gus" Devine.
In 2009 a grand jury indicted Weiss on two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of misdemeanor sexual abuse. Each sexual abuse count specifically stated that Weiss had "sexual contact…consisting of placing his [erect penis] in contact with said child's buttocks."
The two sexual abuse counts were later dismissed as part of Weiss' plea deal.
But in the deposition for the civil suit Weiss admitted that sexual contact. He also confessed that he was lying when he claimed in a 2008 email to the Times Union that the allegations against him were "100 percent untrue" and originated with a person antagonistic toward Chabad of Colonie.
[Hat Tip: OCR.]