Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Weberman abuse trial starts in Brooklyn

NYTimes   The abuse began when the girl was 12 years old, prosecutors in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn said on Monday. She was sent to a prominent man in her ultra-Orthodox Jewish community for counseling, and prosecutors said the man sexually molested her over the next three years.

But lawyers defending the man, Nechemya Weberman, 54, of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, told a far different story during the opening arguments of his trial. The girl, a defense lawyer told the jury, had hatched the sordid tale of abuse as an act of revenge against Mr. Weberman and against a religious community she found stifling and rulebound. 

As proceedings began during the trial of Mr. Weberman, who is accused of 88 counts of sexual abuse of a minor, it became clear that the community itself, as well as Mr. Weberman, would undergo scrutiny during what is expected to be an emotional week of sexually explicit and culturally intricate testimony.

Both the prosecution and the defense informed the jury that the Satmar Hasidic community, to which Mr. Weberman and the girl belonged, was so rigid that questions from a young girl about something as simple as the proper length of a skirt could lead to mandatory counseling, and even expulsion from school. The accuser in this case, both sides said, was just that kind of girl: a free spirit whose questioning and challenges to authority landed her in trouble. [...]

8 comments :

  1. i belive u can help me understand something that is troubling me,i was in court today,i heard the victim testify,if it is true that they have a video of her she lost her chezkas kashrus,so why do we belive her that what she says is true?

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    1. I spoke with one of the most respected rabbis who deals with abuse in the frum community who knows her well. He said she is telling the truth.

      If that is not sufficient - there are clear facts such as how and why she was meeting with him - which are not acceptable and destroy his chezkas kashrus. I am not sure why the existence of a video of her destroys her chezkas kashrus? Is there any evidence that she is a liar?

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    2. it shows she is a mufkares,and that is her motive for her to get back at him for exposing her.i am just being devils advocate.

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    3. No it shows how somebody can be harmed by an authority figure who betrays trust

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  2. Totally irrelevent if I belive its sufficient,what does halacha say regarding a professinal assesment regarding telling the truth?

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    1. Actualy we are dealing with a trial by a secular court which will declare him either innocent or guilty.

      If he is declared guilty - as a minimum he would not be allowed to be a teacher or therapist or any position involving close interaction. that is even if the evidence is circumstantial.

      I am not sure what you mean by professional assesment - by what? A lie dector? Psychologist?

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  3. most respected rabbis who deals with abuse in the frum community

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    1. Are you asking whether halacha is concerned with character witnesses?

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