Hasidic Brothers Who Extorted Boyfriend of Weberman Sex Abuse Victim Get No-jail Sentences from Brooklyn Judge

By Shmarya Rosenberg
Failed Messiah
June 7, 2013

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2013/06/hasidic-brothers-678who-extorted-boyfriend-of-weberman-sex-abuse-victim-get-no-jail-sentences-678.html

Three Satmar hasidic brothers from Brooklyn admitted yesterday that they tried to extort the boyfriend of a teenage girl who was sexually abused by Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed Satmar therapist, from the time she was 12-years-old until she turned 16. And the judge let them walk free anyway.


Three Satmar hasidic brothers from Brooklyn admitted yesterday that they tried to extort the boyfriend of a teenage girl who was sexually abused by Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed Satmar therapist, from the time she was 12-years-old until she turned 16, the Daily News reported.

The three hasidic thugs – Jacob, Joseph and Hertzka Berger – were allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanor coercion.

Prosecutors – who say they objected to the plea deals – asked Justice Danny Chun for at least a 30-day sentence in the city jail for each of the brothers.

But this is Brooklyn. Chun refused.

He found even a 30-day lockup too much for the hasidic thugs who tried to get at a witness by destroying the business of her boyfriend. Instead, Chun gave them each a conditional discharge and let them walk free.

Each have to stay out of trouble for one year. If they do, their records will be expunged.

One of the brothers, Jacob, also pleaded to felony mischief, but Chun didn’t sentence him to jail for that crime, either.

Instead, Chun fined him a measly $500.

A source close to the case told FailedMessiah.com that prosecutors promised the three Berger brothers no-jail sentences before the case got to court.

In the months before the Weberman trial, the brothers entered the glatt kosher Williamsburg restaurant owned by Hershy Deutsch, who was then the victim’s boyfriend and who is now her husband. They ripped the kosher certification certificate off the wall, told Deutsch his kosher certification had been revoked by the rabbi in charge, and threatened Deutsch.

Deutsch was forced to close the restaurant, which has never reopened.

But he and his now-wife refused to back down, and the 17-year-old victim gave several days of grueling testimony against Weberman, sealing Weberman’s fate.

He was convicted in December of sexually abusing the victim for three years beginning when she was 12-years-old, during what were supposed to be therapy sessions. He is serving a 50-year sentence in state prison.

The victim and her family were harassed before during and after the trial.

Satmar leaders, including both Satmar Rebbes, took steps to try to destroy her father’s business and one of them, Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum of Kiryas Joel, compared the victim to a prostitute in a fiery speech to tens of thousands of his Brooklyn hasidim.

"I'm happy [the Berger brothers’ case is] over, even though they deserve a bigger punishment in my and the entire world's eyes. The judge has his rules, and he made them pay what he thinks is fair.…[But the three brothers’ guilty pleas] should be a lesson to the entire community that we won't stay quiet anymore, we will raise our voice and make sure every person involved will get the punishment they deserve," Hershey Deutsch reportedly said.

The case against another hasid, Abraham Rubin, who allegedly offered Deutsch $500,000 to get his then-17-year-old girlfriend to drop the charges, is still pending.