“[Kellner] did more than my parents did. He reported a crime. He lost his job,
his housing, [all] for a case where they have nothing on him. And we
still don’t have any idea about what is happening with [accused pedophile Rabbi Baruch] Lebovits [pictured at right, whose
retrial has still not been scheduled and may never be, despite the large amount of evidence against him].”
Rabbi Boruch Lebovits
As DA’s Case Against Sam Kellner Continues To Implode, Activists Plan Protest
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Sam Kellner is a Munkatcher hasid who broke ranks with his rebbe and community to report child sexual abuse to the Brooklyn DA.
Kellner, whose son was allegedly abused by Rabbi Boruch Lebovits, a well-known hazzan (cantor)and travel agent in the Brooklyn hasidic community, also brought other alleged victims of Lebovits to the DA to facilitate the prosecution of a man known in that hasidic community as a prolific abuser.
Lebovits was eventually convicted on child sex abuse charges in 2010 and sentenced to 10 2/3 to 32 years in prison.
Lebovits was freed on a technicality in 2011 and is supposed to be retried, but no court date has been set.
Months after the Lebovits trial, Kellner was charged by the Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes with extortion. Hynes maintains that Kellner extorted Lebovits’ family and bribed a witness to testify against him.
The DA’s evidence to support these claims reportedly came almost exclusively from the Lebovits family and Boruch Lebovits’ attorneys.
A series of reports in The Jewish Week by Hella Winston has documented the spurious nature of that evidence, evidence that includes a Yiddish-language tape that does not mean what Hynes’ prosecutors claim and is – even taking Hynes’ mistranslation into full account – ambiguous evidence at best, as Michael Powell noted in the New York Times last month. (Powell heavily credits and confirms much of Winston’s reporting in this case, which is partially funded by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.)
The key prosecution witness (known as “Yoel” in Winston’s reporting) who has contradicted himself multiple times, who clearly perjured himself, and who now admits his repeated travel to and from Israel, his school tuition and expenses, his attorneys and his rent are all paid for by a hasidic community activist who is a close supporter of Boruch Lebovits – facts largely confirmed by prosecutors, but only after it became clear to them that those facts would be brought out in court this week by Kellner’s defense team, Winston exclusively reported Sunday.
Lebovits’ lead attorney also made several (unsuccessful) attempts to broker a plea deal on unspecified charges related to “Yoel,” a fact prosecutors now confirm – also a Winston exclusive.
Kellner’s lawyers point to the plead deal atempts as evidence that “Yoel” was really a victim of Lebovits, just as “Yoel” originally claimed both to Kellner and then to the DA after Kellner brought him to prosecutors, and was not bribed by Kellner to implicate Lebovits, as “Yoel” told the grand jury that indicted Kellner more than a year later.
Based on this new information, Kellner’s attorneys believe that the DA (in essence) colluded with Lebovits’ attorneys to suborn perjury and indict Kellner.
Hynes case against Kellner is, to put it kindly, imploding.
In court Monday, Hynes’ prosecutors asked for and got a delay to the trial’s start to “look into” the hasidic community activist, Zalmen Ashkenazi, who appears to have both bribed and extorted “Yoel” in an effort to frame Kellner and free Lebovits.
Kellner’s attorneys strenuously objected.
Niall MacGiollabhui, one of Kellner’s attorneys, reportedly told the court that the DA’s last minute Ashkenazi investigation was “of no relevance” to Kellner’s case. The discovery material belatedly turned over to Kellner’s defense team Friday showed, he argued, that ‘Yoel’ won’t be testifying at Kellner’s trial because of all the changes, contradictions, inconsistencies – and apparent lies and perjury – involved in his story.
Judge Ann Donnelly granted the prosecution a delay until July 29, but the lead prosecutor on the case, Joseph Alexis, reportedly told the court that he would not be ready then. He also noted that he would be on vacation in August. That almost certainly means there will be another delay until after the Jewish High Holidays end in late September – weeks after the September 10 primary. From there, it is only a brief hop, skip and jump to delay the trial even further until after the fall election – something Hynes, who is running for his seventh term as DA amid corruption and wrongful prosecution allegations, seems desperate to do.
The prosecution’s request for an additional delay will be discussed in court on the 29th.
Anti-abuse activist Chaim Levin has organized a protest in support of Kellner and against Hynes that will take place Thursday outside Hynes’ Jay Street offices.
Levin – who is also a survivor of child sexual abuse – told Winston that Kellner is “paying a really big price for what he did and we need to stand up for him.”
“He did more than my parents did. He reported a crime. He lost his job, his housing, [all] for a case where they have nothing on him. And we still don’t have any idea about what is happening with Lebovits [whose retrial has still not been scheduled and may never be].”
“[The DA] is pointing the finger at the wrong person,” Levin told Winston, “and it’s time we looked at them in the eye and said ‘enough.’”
You can read Hella Winston’s newest report here.