Report: Brooklyn D.A. Releases Names of Orthodox Jews Convicted in Child Sex-abuse Cases

CBS New York
July 22, 2013

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/07/21/report-brooklyn-da-releases-names-of-orthodox-jews-convicted-in-child-sex-abuse-cases/

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. (file/credit: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)

NEW YORK(1010 WINS) — In a massive shift in policy Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has released the names of 46 convicted child sex-abusers, according to a published report.

On Sunday, The New York Post, reported that Hynes had turned over the names of 45 men and 1 woman in the Orthodox Jewish Community who were convicted in ‘sex-attack cases’.

In the past Hynes had avoided releasing those names amidst concerns that doing so could cause victims to be exposed to intimidation tactics by other members of the community and that it might deter other victims from speaking out, the Post reported.

The Kol Tzedek program, which was created to help Orthodox Jews come forward about abuse within their community has led to the pursuit of 118 cases. Twenty-five offenders have done jail time, with one receiving a sentence of 103-years, the New York Post reported.

Rabbi and former New York cop Gary Moskowitz told 1010 WINS reporter Gary Baumgarten that members of the Orthodox community have an obligation to come forward about abuse.

“There is an obligation to listen to the law of the land, the law of the land clearly states that these rabbis are mandated reporters and these teachers are mandated reporters and they’re refusing to do it,” Moskowitz said.

The District Attorney would not release the names of suspects who still have cases pending, among them several horrific crimes including ‘the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl’, ‘the sodomy of two young boys’, and a man ‘accused of molesting three boys’ in his yeshiva, the Post reported.