Rabbi’s Reprieve

By Jose Martinez
New York Post
April 29, 2012

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/rabbi_reprieve_QrfDoM8dy5m6eZzlSMrlWP

The conviction of a Brooklyn rabbi who was sentenced to up to 32 years for preying on a teenage boy has been overturned by a state appeals court.

The Appellate Division ordered a new trial for Rabbi Baruch Lebovits, who was found guilty in 2010 of sexually abusing a then-16-year-old boy.

Judges this week reversed the conviction, noting that prosecutors didn’t give defense lawyers a detective’s notes about a possible plot by the teen.

“It’s an absolute victory for us,” said lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

Lebovits had charged that the teen admitted he was “going to try to make money,” the judges noted, by accusing Lebovits of sex abuse.

Baruch Lebovits.

The case against Lebovits was rocked last year when a grand jury indicted an alleged extortionist, Samuel Kellner, on charges of lining up phony witnesses against the rabbi.’