Charedi child molester returns to court seeking shorter sentence in politically-charged hearing

During his trial, the victim testified that he had forced her to perform sexual acts on him and threatened to have her expelled from school if she refused or reported the abuse.

At the time of his conviction, Brooklyn’s then-district attorney, Charles J Hynes, proclaimed that the “veil of secrecy” around abuse within the strictly-Orthodox community.
However, the prosecution was met with strong backlash from some individuals within the community. In 2014, Abraham Rubin was sentenced to four months in prison for attempting to bribe the victim and her then-boyfriend, offering them $500,000 to leave the country and decline to testify against Weberman.

Likewise, Joseph Fried was charged after photographing the victim, who has a legal right to anonymity, as she spoke in court after the images where shared on social media, those the charges were later dropped.

Hundreds of Charedi men contributed to a defence fund for Weberman at the time of his trial and Yiddish publications within the community compared his case to the false accusation of rape levelled against Joseph in the Book of Genesis.

There was also outrage from some senior, and politically well-connected, rabbis, who claimed that the sentence handed down was disproportionately harsh.

In a letter to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, several prominent New York rabbis expressed their “concern for the exorbitantly excessive sentence”, adding: “Mr Weberman, a 66-year-old married man, a father to 10 children, 40 grandchildren, 1 great grandchild, and husband to a very dedicated wife, has served 12 painful years of his 100-year sentence as a model prisoner with zero infractions, and a perfect custodial record.”

They also emphasised that the convicted abuser “spends the majority of his days engrossed in Torah study,” while in prison and that he “remains steadfastly and unwaveringly committed to his Jewish faith, acting as a mentor and Rabbi to other Jewish and non-Jewish incarcerated individuals”.

Now, Weberman has won the backing of Hynes’ successor as district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, who has been systematically reviewing cases for potential clemency since his election in 2017, to have his sentence reduced further.

Boorey Deutsch, the husband of Weberman’s victim, has hit out against Gonzalez’s claim that the sentence was “unusually harsh” due to the high-profile nature of the case, suggesting that the city’s heavily organised and influential Charedi voting bloc was placing pressure on authorities to commute the sentence.

Deutsch told the New York Times: “This sends a devastating message. Politics matters more than protecting children.”

He also told The City: “We didn’t know anything about this until the DA’s office suddenly called us.

"We’re not okay with this at all. My wife wants to speak in court because she still believes he’s a danger to any child out there, even his own kids.

"A person like this deserves to be in prison for life. Fifty years isn’t extreme. What’s extreme is letting him back into the community.”

He and others opposed to the decision also point out that Weberman has never accepted his guilt or shown remorse, which, they claim, should rule out any opportunity of commutation.

Asher Lovy, director of Za’akah, a charity which attempts to encourage reporting of sexual abuse within the Charedi community, added: “It sends a strong message to victims of, ‘Don’t even try. You don’t stand a chance against our power’.

"Since the day he was convicted, influential figures have turned him into a cause célèbre  – raising money for his legal defence, treating him like a martyr, and denying his crimes entirely.

"Watching the DA sit on their hands instead of fighting this is shocking and disgusting.

"Whose side are they on? Are they on the side of victims, or the side of abusers who can deliver political support?”

Oren Yaniv, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, insisted that politics had nothing to do with the decision.

He told The City: “His was a horrific case, but fairness compels us to look critically at sentences like this one that fall wildly outside the range for other defendants convicted of the same crimes.

"Our office stands by this conviction and strongly believes that a long prison term was appropriate, but this sentence — four times longer than anyone convicted of the same crime — intended to make an example of the defendant in a politically charged moment.”