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	"Grab'bi Gets 60 Days for Flight Inter-lewd By Mitchel Maddux New York Post May 13, 2011 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/grab_bi_gets_days_for_flight_inter_UiaxV8i2dRSsQOEiGVsE3L An Orthodox rabbi was sentenced yesterday to 60 days in a federal prison for fondling a woman during a trans-Atlantic flight bound for New York. Rabbi Gavriel Bidany, 48, a married father of 11 children, was convicted last week of groping a female Israel Defense Forces officer on the Delta flight from Tel Aviv to JFK. "Rabbi Bidany committed a serious crime . . . and such conduct cannot be tolerated," Magistrate Judge Ramon Reyes Jr. said in Brooklyn federal court. "It took a lot of courage and personal sacrifice for [the victim] to come forward and testify," the judge said. Assistant US Attorney David Sarratt told the court Bidany's conduct was particularly troubling given that "he selected a victim who is 23 years old but appears much younger." The two were in adjoining seats on the flight earlier this year when the young woman fell asleep. She testified that she awoke to find Bidany's hand massaging her crotch and then her breasts. After she accused him of molesting her, the rabbi pretended to be dozing and feigned innocence, the woman testified. She was not present for his sentencing, but the prosecutor read a letter from her. "I lost, in a most human way, my most precious thing -- my innocence," the woman wrote about the in-flight assault. "I won't be trapped again. I also won't trust again."
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