Weberman Convicted on Most Serious Counts

Jewish Week
December 10, 2012

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/breaking-news/breaking-weberman-convicted-most-serious-counts

Nechemya Weberman, the unlicensed therapist charged with sexually abusing a young Satmar chasidic girl he was counseling, faces 117 years in jail after being convcited of more than 60 charges in the case. A jury delivered the verdict Monday afternoon in state Supreme Court, the first full day after deliberations began on Friday.

Weberman faced a total of 88 counts brought by prosecutors, all related to the same victim.

The abuse took place over the course of several years, beginning when she was 12 and ending in 2010, and shed light not only on the apparent reluctance of some chasidic Jews to expose and punish abusers, but on the inner workings of an insular community in which self-appointed "modesty committees" act to punish those deemed to be violatiing strict halachic standards of behavior. The girl's family was forced to send her to Weberman because she was defying the community’s dress code, communicating with boys and asking questions about the existence of God, court testimony suggested.