Orthodox Jewish Cantor Faces Months In Jail After Pleading Guilty To Sexually Abusing Teen

Gothamist
May 17, 2014

http://gothamist.com/2014/05/17/orthodox_jewish_cantor_admits_to_se.php#.

An ultra-Orthodox cantor has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a teenage boy—and he's only facing months in jail as a result. Baruch Lebovits, 62, was previously convicted of eight counts of molestation, but that case was overturned in 2012 on a technicality. And this week, Lebovits fully admitted that he engaged in oral sex with a teenage boy on eight different occasions in 2004 and 2005.

Lebovits was sentenced to 10 ½ to 32 years in prison in 2010 for raping children in Borough Park. At the time, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango showed no mercy, telling the court, "It is important for the courts to send a clear message that abusing and harming children will not be tolerated."

But his conviction was reversed on a series of technicalities. According to the Times, an appeal's court decided Lebovits "had been deprived of a fair trial because prosecutors took too long to turn over a detective’s notes about a witness." The case became emblematic of problems under former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes in prosecuting sexual abuse cases among ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Current DA Ken Thompson wrote a letter to Hynes asking that he stop working on the case last fall, fearing that Hynes would offer Lebovits a plea deal. The victim didn't want to testify again though, and prosecutors ended up offering Lebovits four to 12 years; but Justice Mark Dwyer lowered that to a two-year sentence, "citing those given to others who had pleaded to similar crimes."

So under his current plea deal, Lebovits will receive credit for the 13 months he has already served under the previous conviction (on the same charges). As a result, he'll only serve a few months in jail, at most.