Rockland County Judges Give Child Rapist, Child Sex Abuser No-Prison Plea Deals
By Moishe Turner
[with video] Two haredim in bedroom suburbs of New York City got sweetheart plea deals earlier this week from judges in Rockland County. Both haredim pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse charges – one of them involving anal rape. But even though one of those cases involves repeated anal rape of the child, neither haredi man will serve a day in prison. Two haredim in bedroom suburbs of New York City got sweetheart plea deals earlier this week from judges in Rockland County.
Both haredim pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse charges – one of them involving anal rape.
But even though one of those cases involves repeated anal rape of the child, neither haredi man will serve any time in prison.
Despite this bizarre agreement, Rockland County prosecutors are trumpeting the plea deals as major successes, the Journal News reported.
Rabbi Moishe Turner – described as 58-year-old “heavy-set man with a long beard streaked with gray” who prayed before the court session started and whose English is so poor he needed a Yiddish translator to understand what happening around him – admitted Friday that he had anal sex with a boy that he knew was only 14-years-old and who was therefore unable to legally consent to sex – a felony.
But Turner’s admission only came after the judge promised to give him a sentence of 10 years of probation without any prison time, supposedly to spare the child – whose family had been harassed by haredi community activists – from having to testify against Turner.
Turner could have been sentenced to up to seven years in state prison.
Herschel Taubenfeld, 33, who taught for years in Skvere hasidic schools in New Square, earlier in the week pleaded guilty to forcibly touching a young boy in 2011. His admission of guilt came after he was promised a sentence of six years of probation. Taubenfeld was originally with with 10 counts of forcible touching, 10 counts of endangering the welfare of a child and 10 counts of third-degree sex abuse. All those charges are misdemeanors.
Because of that seeming undercharging of the crimes, Taubenfeld would not be registered as a sex offender on state or national registries. However, Prosecutors allegedly promised that Taubenfeld will be registered as a sex offender on the state registry. It is unclear whether or not this is enforcable, however.
His case was adjudicated in New Square Justice Court.
Another Rockland County haredi man, Dovid Kohn of Monsey, 59, still faces 40 criminal counts of having oral sex with a girl beginning when she was 12-years-old and ending when she was 15.
Kohn is reportedly currently challenging telephone conversations between him and the girl and recorded by police. Kohn is reportedly claiming the recordings are inaudible.
The alleged victim, now in her early 20s, is also a witness in the case.
Another hasidic man, Shmuel Dym, 32, of Monsey, is fighting to have his guilty plea to sexually abusing a young boy withdrawn. Dym’s request to withdraw that guilty plea has twice been rejected by New York State Supreme Court Justice William Kelly.
"The epidemic of child-molestation threatens an entire generation of children, Many of these molesters are arrogant, narcissistic, deceptive, and downright evil. Even though some of them appear unable to control themselves, that is because of choices they repeatedly and intentionally made,” Rabbi Noson Leiter, founder of Help Rescue Our Children and a leader of Torah Jews for Decency in Monsey told the Journal News, calling Taubenfeld’s guilty plea, “a trail-blazing case — the first in which a survivor from within New Square prosecuted a molester within the community.…Taubenfeld’s own admission to molestation charges also confirms that current New Square leadership who clearly failed to stop this vile, manipulative ‘educator’ and is unqualified to deal with the molestation crisis,” he reportedly said.
Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe told the paper that historically, the major issue for law enforcement in dealing with haredi child sexual abuse was that the haredi “insular community often protected the accused at the expense of the victims.”
But Zugibe – who is often criticized by anti-abuse activists for what is perceived to be his weak enforcement of the law, also said that he was encouraged by the result of the Taubenfeld case.
“[Haredi families have] recognized finally that if you protect the victims all you are doing is creating a new generation of offenders and victims. In the latest cases, particularly Taubenfeld, I have to credit the community for being more forthcoming. We have a long way to go. I am hopeful this is a new trend,” Zugibe said.
Prosecutor Jennifer Parietti said Friday in court that Zugibe had personally approved the no-prison sentence for child rapist Moishe Turner.
“The victim is under tremendous pressure [from his community. This plea will relieve that,” Parietti reportedly told the court.
Haredi families who report child sexual abuse to police regularly face extreme harassment from their communities – a fact prosecutors openly admit but allegedly have done nothing to try to stop.
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