A former Lakewood Yeshiva teacher today admitted sexually abusing a boy,
after authorities said two more victims of his came forward to them as
his trial was underway.
Rabbi Yosef Kolko
The APP reports:
A former Lakewood Yeshiva teacher today admitted sexually abusing a boy, after authorities said two more victims of his came forward to them as his trial was underway.
Sheriff's officers placed Yosef Kolko in handcuffs and led him to the Ocean County Jail after he pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and child endangerment, and state Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson revoked his $125,000 bail.
He was on trial before Hodgson, charged with sexually abusing a boy, now 16, when he was 11 and 12, in 2008 and 2009.
Kolko’s trial on the charges involving that one boy got underway last week, but Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Laura Pierro told the judge that the defendant decided to plead guilty after learning that two more victims had come forward to authorities.
Pierro said she was contacted late Friday afternoon by a young woman who claimed she was victimized by Kolko, and the attorney for a young man who also claimed to be a victim.…
In exchange for Kolko’s guilty plea, the state would not proceed with additional charges related to the additional victims, but no other promises were made to him, Pierro said.…
Lakewood's rabbinical establishment and Brooklyn's Rabbi Yisroel Belsky tried to stop the victim and his family from pressing charges and caused horrible things to be done to them.
Belsky wrote a letter urging haredim to harass the victim and his family (English translation from Survivors for Justice):
Rabbis issued a proclamation against the victim and his family:
And this flier was distributed:
Download Kolko_LakewoodFlier-Redacted-1
Belsky should be tried for obstruction of justice and so should these Lakewood rabbis, whose communities should ostracize them and remove them from their jobs.
But that won't happen.
Haredim let their rabbis get away with all types of evil, and prosecutors are far too reluctant to charge religious leaders than they should be.
Still, Belsky and these other rabbi-thugs belong in prison, and it would be nice if law enforcement would finally put them there.
[Hat Tips: MarkfromShortHills, Rebitzman, Ha-magid, The Lion, LAC, Andrew Bloom.]