By John Marzulli
New York Daily News
May 13, 2011
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/05/12/2011-05-12_lock_up_dad__we_cant_be_wed_rabbis_kids_cry.html
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| Rabbi Gavriel Bidany was convicted last week of a fondling 23-year-old Israeli soldier sleeping in the seat next to his on a transatlantic flight. |
Don't lock up our dad - he has to help us get married!
That was the plea from the children of an Orthodox rabbi convicted of molesting an Israeli soldier on a plane.
"I have reached an age [22] where I need to find a groom and start a family," Eden Bidany wrote in a letter to Magistrate Ramon Reyes.
"And without my father it is very difficult," she added.
Gavriel Bidany, 48, was convicted last week of a fondling the 23-year-old lieutenant sleeping in the seat next to his on a transatlantic flight.
Gavriel Bidany, a marriage counselor and father of 11, faces up to six months in prison when he's sentenced Thursday in Brooklyn Federal Court.
His son also begged for mercy.
"Today I am 21 and I need to start my own family ... and without my dad it is impossible," said Avishar Bidany.
"It would hurt my match-making possibilities."
Another son said if he finds a bride soon, having a father in jail would ruin the wedding.
"I would like to get married properly with my father at my side please," Ariel Bidany wrote.
Also asking for leniency was U.S. Army Capt. Jonathan Gross, an assistant professor of law at West Point.
In a note written on Department of the Army letterhead, Gross said Gavriel Bidany should be held accountable, but not incarcerated.
Gross, who did not return a call for comment, said the rabbi once helped him and his wife "with a particularly difficult situation."
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Sarratt urged the judge to punish the rabbi with several months of jail time for the assault and for perjuring himself on the witness stand by claiming he was asleep at the time of the attack.
Contact: jmarzulli@nydailynews.com
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