Yeshiva Sex Abuse Trial: Ex-Administrator Norman Lamm, Suffering from Senility, Should Not Testify, Say Defense Lawyers

By Daniel Beekman
New York Daily News
September 9, 2013

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/yeshiva-380-million-sex-abuse-trial-ex-administrator-senile-shouldn-testify-defense-article-1.1450420

There are claims that the chancellor of Yeshiva University Rabbi Norman Lamm, who retired amid scandal, is suffering from dementia.

Defense lawyers in the sex abuse lawsuit against Yeshiva University say longtime administrator Norman Lamm, who retired in July amid allegations of a coverup, should not be questioned because he suffers from dementia.

They claim his testimony would be unreliable due to his condition, citing reports by his doctors.

But the plaintiffs, former students who allege they were preyed upon by staff, want to grill Lamm no matter what. They also want him deposed right away, before his purported condition worsens.

“Months matter,” Kevin Mulhearn, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Monday in Manhattan federal court.

Lamm, 85, stepped down as chancellor of the Washington Heights institution a week before the plaintiffs filed a $380 million lawsuit. Lamm has apologized for not alerting authorities when abuse accusations reached his desk.

Judge John Koeltl ruled Monday that a third doctor picked by the two sides should determine whether it makes sense to depose Lamm.

In a retirement memo published July 1, Lamm said: “conditions have caused me to rely on help from my family in writing this letter.”

But a reporter for the Jewish Daily Forward who interviewed Lamm last December wrote on July 2 that “nothing in our conversation led me to believe that he was suffering from dementia (his recall was clear, his arguments cogent).”