Still No Verdict in Kidnapping Conspiracy Trial of Lakewood Rabbi

By MaryAnn Spoto
NJ.com
April 20, 2015

http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/2015/04/still_no_verdict_in_kidnapping_conspiracy_trial_of.html

Lakewood Rabbi Mendel Epstein arrives at the Federal Courthouse as closing arguments in the case get underway. Other defendants in the conspiracy and kidnapping trial are, Rabbi Jay Goldstein, Rabbi Binyamin Stimler and David Epstein (Mendel Epstein's son) Trenton, NJ 4/13/15 (Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Lakewood Rabbi Mendel Epstein arrives at the Federal Courthouse as closing arguments in the case get underway. Other defendants in the conspiracy and kidnapping trial are, Rabbi Jay Goldstein, Rabbi Binyamin Stimler and David Epstein (Mendel Epstein's son) Trenton, NJ 4/13/15 (Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Jurors deliberating in the trial of a Lakewood rabbi accused of arranging beatings to force men to grant their wives religious divorces finished their second full day of discussions without reaching a verdict on Monday.

By the end of the day, jurors sent out a note requesting the transcript of the testimony of Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag, who testified against Rabbi Mendel Epstein in a kidnapping conspiracy trial.

Ralbag, who was granted immunity from prosecution by federal prosecutors in exchange for his testimony, including his description of an investigation launched by a group of rabbis in Brooklyn into one of the alleged kidnappings.

Epstein, a prominent rabbi who specializes in divorce proceedings, was on trial along with his son, David "Ari" Epstein, and two other rabbis, Binyamin Stimler and Jay Goldstein, on conspiracy, kidnapping and attempted kidnapping charges that grew out of a federal undercover sting.

Earlier in the day, jurors also asked for transcripts of the testimony of two FBI agents who arrested eight people, including Stimler and Goldstein, on Oct. 9, 2013, at a warehouse in Edison where an undercover sting took place.

In the eight weeks of testimony before U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson in Trenton, federal prosecutors offered testimony about the beatings of five men in four separate incidents between 2009 and 2012 as evidence of the conspiracy.

Prosecutors charged that the elder Epstein arranged the kidnappings, beatings and torture of husbands who refused to give their wives religious divorces. In some of those cases, Epstein demanded $60,000 to pay members of his "team," prosecutors alleged.

Defense attorneys have argued their clients were framed by a man who admitted to one of those kidnappings and who sought to reduce the possible life sentence he faces for his crime. They also contended identifications of the younger Epstein by the two of the victims were unreliable.

Jurors continue their deliberations on Tuesday morning.