"…DA Hynes had his second victim. Yet within months the DA decided not to
take this case to trial and instead reduced the charges and offered
Kolko a sweetheart plea deal. Questioned by reporters, Hynes’ office
tripped over itself defending its decision. First, it claimed the
victims were not willing to testify. When the families offered proof
this was not true, the DA reversed course and said he had sought to
spare the children the trauma of a trial. But the children were not
fearful of taking the stand. In fact, one of them testified last year
when Kolko was charged with violating the terms of his probation. Both
have been looking forward to testifying in the pending civil case
against Yeshiva Torah Temimah.…"
Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes
Updated at 4:05 pm CDT
Ben Hirsch of Survivors for Justice writes in the Jewish Week:
…In 2006 I was approached for help by the family of a 9-year-old boy who had been molested by Rabbi Yehuda Kolko at Yeshiva Torah Temimah. The boy wanted to file a criminal complaint.
People knowledgeable about this issue told me that Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes hadn’t prosecuted an Orthodox sex abuse case in years and wouldn’t take this one. I didn’t believe them.
We contacted the Brooklyn DA’s office and it promised that prosecutors would conduct a one-day interview with the victim and his family during which a formal complaint would be taken. However, after four full days of interviews, the assistant district attorney in charge informed us that the office was reluctant to prosecute this case.
Why? The prosecutor said that the office wanted at least two victims before proceeding with a case. Outraged at the DA’s inaction, the family filed a civil lawsuit and announced the suit at a press conference. Lo and behold, the Brooklyn DA arrested Kolko — the very next day.
Shortly thereafter, an 8-year-old boy disclosed to police that Rabbi Yehuda Kolko had molested him in school. Kolko was arrested a second time.
DA Hynes had his second victim. Yet within months the DA decided not to take this case to trial and instead reduced the charges and offered Kolko a sweetheart plea deal. Questioned by reporters, Hynes’ office tripped over itself defending its decision. First, it claimed the victims were not willing to testify. When the families offered proof this was not true, the DA reversed course and said he had sought to spare the children the trauma of a trial. But the children were not fearful of taking the stand. In fact, one of them testified last year when Kolko was charged with violating the terms of his probation. Both have been looking forward to testifying in the pending civil case against Yeshiva Torah Temimah.
When the victims’ fathers filed complaints alleging that Yeshiva Torah Temimah was engaging in a relentless campaign of intimidation against them, Hynes refused to process the complaints. Instead, the DA publicly ridiculed them.
Across the river in New Jersey, things could not be more different.
When a Lakewood man named Shaul Luban sent text messages urging people to pressure Yosef Kolko’s victim’s father to drop the charges, the Ocean County DA charged Luban with witness tampering. She also privately warned Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, a prominent Brooklyn rabbi who was intimidating the family, to cease and desist or risk prosecution.…
Hynes plays us for fools. His spurious claims of over 100 prosecutions have been questioned by everyone from advocates to The Jewish Week, the Forward, New York Times and New York Post. His unique policy of non-disclosure of Orthodox child molesters serves only as cover for his false statistics. He boasts of aggressive prosecutions, yet getting Hynes to prosecute these cases takes extraordinary effort. Absent extensive grassroots activism, media coverage and even the intervention of private attorneys retained by the families of victims willing to stand up to the maltreatment meted out by many at the DA’s office, Hynes will not prosecute an Orthodox sex abuse case.
Advocates who have met with Hynes’ team report experiencing intense hostility and even being threatened with arrest. Case in point: Hynes’ arrest of Sam Kellner, a parent of a victim and a confidential informant who worked closely with sex crimes Det. Steve Litwin to build the case against Rabbi Baruch Lebovitz, a notorious child molester who was tried and sentenced to 30 years in prison. One day before Lebovitz was released from prison — after his conviction was overturned on appeal due to the DA’s neglect to turnover evidence to the defense — Hynes held a press conference announcing the arrest of Kellner of charges of perjury and extortion.…
Hirsch goes on to note that the Jewish Week's reporting – some of it recently confirmed by NY Times columnist Michael Powell – shows the evidence against Kellner is exceedingly weak, and comes from the family of Baruch Lebovits – not from any independent police work.
(The key piece of evidence is a surreptitiously made audiotape Lebovits's son Meyer and Kellner which is ambiguous at best. There is also a videotape of a victim allegedly bribed by Kellner on which the victim repeatedly says that Kellner never offered or gave him bribes. But the victim does say that Lebovits repeatedly molested him – facts Hynes' office apparently did not tell the judge who issued the warrant for Kellner's arrest.)
The difference between New jersey and New York, Hirsch says, is Brooklyn – meaning its corruption, and its corupt D.A.
You can read Hirsch;s entire piece here.