NEW YORK
The Jewish Week
10/06/14
Hella Winston
Contributing Editor
A judge’s apparent misunderstanding of correction law caused a notorious chasidic child molester to get out of jail at least eight months earlier than the judge intended when he sentenced him — despite being informed of the mistake, The Jewish Week has learned.
In July, Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Mark R. Dwyer imposed a two-year sentence on Lebovits, who at the time had pleaded guilty to eight felony counts of sexual abuse. Lebovits was released early from jail last week “for good behavior.” The Brooklyn district attorney had opposed the sentence, having sought two-to-six-years for Lebovits.
Lebovits’ years-long case, and the way it — and the related case of Sam Kellner — was handled by prosecutors, became political fodder in the race for Brooklyn district attorney between the longtime incumbent, Charles Hynes, and his successor, Kenneth Thompson.
In 2010, Lebovits was convicted at trial of the same crimes and sentenced to 10 2/3 to 32 years in prison. But his conviction was reversed on appeal due to an error by the Brooklyn District Attorney and a new trial was ordered; this ultimately resulted in the July sentence. At the time of his release on bail in 2011 pending a new trial, Lebovits had served just days over 12 months in an upstate prison.
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