Rabbi Given Probation, Not Jail in Sex Assault Case

By Matt Stout
Boston Herald
August 2, 2012

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20220802rabbi_given_probation_not_jail_in_sex_assault_case/srvc=home&position=also

Rabbi Stanley Levitt

The pedophile rabbi who admitted to molesting three young boys in the 1970s was sentenced to 10 years probation today in Suffolk Superior Court, a possibility one of his victims said he was told to expect.

Prosecutors say they asked that Stanley Levitt, 66, be sentenced to 2 ? years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child.

The rabbi, who lives in Philadelphia, yesterday admitted to sexually assaulting three sixth-grade boys while he working as a Brookline religious teacher more than three decades ago.

Michael Brecher, one of Levitt’s victims, told the Herald yesterday prosecutors told him to prepare himself for a sentence that included only probation, a fate Levitt received after pleading no contest to similar charges out of Philadelphia in 2004.

On the Boston charges, Levitt faced up to 40 years in prison on the four separate counts, according to prosecutors.

Brecher, now 48, called Levitt a “sick man” who in December had indicated he would plead guilty to the charges, but balked at the last minute.

According to authorities, all three of Levitt’s victims were sixth-grade students in 1975 and 1976 when he molested them at his former Brighton home and one while he recovered from a hand injury at a local hospital.

Two, including Brecher, originally came forward with accusations that led a 2009 indictment, while a third came forward later, telling police Levitt assaulted him during a sleepover when the rabbi told him to take a shower before bed.