Brookline Tab
September 24, 2009
http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/news/police_and_fire/x1699596711/Former-Maimonides-rabbi-charged-with-sexual-assault
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| The Maimonides School in Brookline, Sept. 24, 2009. |
A former rabbi at Maimonides School in Brookline was indicted on child sexual assault charges dating back to the 1970s, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.
Stanley Z. Levitt of Philadelphia was charged with four counts of indecent assault and battery on a person under 14 for allegedly assaulting two former students at Maimonides, where Levitt was a teacher. Both students were about 11 years old at the time of the alleged crimes.
“This was a betrayal of trust in the most awful sense,” Conley said. “The evidence suggests that Levitt abused a position of power, respect and authority to engage in sexual behavior with boys were too young to resist and too afraid to speak out.”
In a May 1975 incident, Levitt allegedly visited a student at Children’s Hospital Boston after the boy was involved in an accident.
Three other offenses were allegedly committed against a different boy during a three-night visit to the rabbi’s Chiswick Road home in 1975.
Conley’s office learned of the allegations when the Children’s Hospital victim reported the abuse to Boston Police in September 2008.
The District Attorney’s office said Levitt is represented by attorney Scott Curtis. He is expected to face arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court on Oct. 17. Curtis said he has not been retained yet, pending the arraignment, and that he has no comment, “except he’s innocent.”
In 2006, the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse was extended from 15 years to 27 years, but it was a different piece of the law that allowed prosecutors to pursue charges against Levitt 34 years after the alleged crimes.
“It was the tolling provision in the statute of limitations that allowed us to bring these charges,” Conley said. “When Levitt left Massachusetts for Pennsylvania in 1980, the clock stopped and left him open to these charges.
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