N.J. Jury Finds Orthodox Rabbi Guilty of Kidnap-divorce Plot

By Reuven Blau
New York Daily News
April 21, 2015

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/orthodox-rabbi-guilty-kidnapping-beating-jewish-husbands-article-1.2193597

A New Jersey jury found an Orthodox rabbi and two other men guilty of conspiring to kidnap Jewish husbands and violently force them to grant their wives religious divorces.

Prosecutors charged Mendel Epstein, 69, and nine other men who beat and tortured recalcitrant husbands who refused to give their wives a religious divorce called a get. The men used handcuffs, electric cattle prods, surgical blades, screwdrivers and hid their faces.

The maximum sentence for a conspiracy kidnapping charge is life in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is set for July 15.

During the eight week trial in U.S. District Court in Trenton, prosecutors played secretly recorded conversations between an undercover posing as a wife desperately seeking help to convince her stubborn husband to give her a get.

The Prodfather, a white bearded Talmudic scholar, told the undercover agent it would cost $60,000 to pay for the potential beatdown.

Epstein, who headed a small congregation in Brooklyn, and the other men were arrested after most were busted inside an Edison warehouse where they planned to confront an uncooperative husband who was made up by an undercover FBI agent on October 2013.

Six co-defendants pleaded guilty in the case before it went to trial.

At the trial, defense attorney Robert Stahl argued Epstein was a "champion of women's rights" who was "puffing and exaggerating" when he talked to undercover agents.

Stahl admitted some crimes may have been committed but argued there was no kidnapping.

At the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Wolfe stressed Epstein and the others weren't participating in a religious ritual.

"These people were not here for a religious ceremony," she told the jury of eight men and eight women.

"There is nothing religious about this. This is a kidnapping."

Prosecutors noted there was a Post-it Note found inside a minivan the men were using.

The note includes a list of things like boots, black shirt, stockings, gloves, a hat or face mask, a blindfold and handcuffs.

Epstein also talked about what the men should do if the husband was so scared he suffered a heart attack.

"Take a right turn and let him die," he told an undercover agent.

Epstein's lawyer argued the feds were missing a major piece of evidence—a cattle prod.

"The government loved Rabbi Epstein's words on the tape, but you know what? There was no cattle prod," Stahl told the jury.

Epstein was recorded bragging about the tough tactics his crew would take about once every year and a half.

"Basically what we are going to be doing is kidnapping a guy for a couple of hours and beating him up and torturing him and then getting him to give the get," Epstein said.

"I guarantee that if you're in the van, you'd give a get to your wife," he added. "We take an electric cattle prod…you put it in certain parts of his body and in one minute the guy will know."

Before his arrest, Epstein was long suspected of using torture to convince Jewish husbands to divorce their wives.

"We prefer not to leave a mark," he told the undercover agent.

Israel Markowitz testified that he was persuaded to Lakewood and tortured into giving his wife a get in 2009. He recognized David Epstein, the Prodfather's son, as one of his assailants.

David Epstein was found not guilty of all charges.

But the jury concluded the other men on trial, including his father Mendel, were guilty of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. They are: rabbi Jay Goldstein, 60, who prosecutors charged was the so-called sofer who would write the get, and rabbi Binyomin Stimler, 39, who was the alleged muscle.

Goldstein’s lawyer said he was “disappointed” in the decision and would appeal.

“These are people who are motivated by their sincere religious beliefs,” said Aiden O’Connor. “And a sincere desire to help women who were not being treated properly by their husbands.”