Law.com
Israel Weingarten, the yeshiva teacher charged in Brooklyn, N.Y., federal court with sexually abusing his daughter for seven years, since she was 9years old, was found guilty Wednesday on all five counts.
With 14 federal marshals lining the courtroom, Eastern District of New York Judge John Gleeson warned the audience against emotional outbursts, but the verdict was met with near silence. With its pro se defendant, sensational charges and furtive peeks behind the closed doors of the secretive Satmar society, United States v. Weingarten has transfixed the Brooklyn legal community.
Following the announcement of the verdict, Weingarten, who appeared pro se, told the court, "As I said to the judge in the beginning, I need adjournment because I was unprepared and I was denied that." Gleeson responded, "You have your objection, you have my ruling. I'll see you [for sentencing] on April 3." [....]
Israel Weingarten, the yeshiva teacher charged in Brooklyn, N.Y., federal court with sexually abusing his daughter for seven years, since she was 9years old, was found guilty Wednesday on all five counts.
With 14 federal marshals lining the courtroom, Eastern District of New York Judge John Gleeson warned the audience against emotional outbursts, but the verdict was met with near silence. With its pro se defendant, sensational charges and furtive peeks behind the closed doors of the secretive Satmar society, United States v. Weingarten has transfixed the Brooklyn legal community.
Following the announcement of the verdict, Weingarten, who appeared pro se, told the court, "As I said to the judge in the beginning, I need adjournment because I was unprepared and I was denied that." Gleeson responded, "You have your objection, you have my ruling. I'll see you [for sentencing] on April 3." [....]
How can those Rabbanim be so deluded as to believe him???
ReplyDeleteIs it because of some pitfalls of the daas torah system? (Like the question about who is fit to be a witness...)
What could Rabbanim & Dayanim do to avoid those pitfalls?
http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/hey-mr-critic-19/?hp
ReplyDeleteNY Times food critic Sam Sifton, a goy, responds here to a letter from a stupid reshanta ocheles treifos who has a kosher boyfriend. She convinced her boyfriend to agree to eat maacholos assuros with her for one meal only and wants Sifton to recommend which restaurants have the most geshmak pork and shellfish that he will be hooked and never keep kosher again. Sifton is appalled by the question and tries to convince her to not go through with her evil scheme, mentioning that Klal Yisroel are am kedoshim.
It turns out that Sifton is the grandson of the galach Reinhold Niebuhr who was the first galach known to demand that missionaries stop targeting Yidden for shmad. He publicly criticized Hitler in 1933 for persecuting Jews, this when the Reform Jews running the NY Times refused to talk about it in the 1940s after they learned of the Final Solution. He also called for the Palestinians to leave Eretz Yisroel to settle in Arab countries.
Tehei zichronam shel Niebuhr veSifton boruch.
Is there an inherent problem with the religious court system in dealing with such cases, (e.g. accepted vs. non-accepted witnesses, presumption of credibility)?
ReplyDeleteWould the evidence given in criminal court (testimonies of victim, her brohter, her mother, contrary testimonies of other siblings, testimonies of school teachers & police in England) have been enough to warrant a condemnation in a Beit Din? What could the Beit Din have done about such a case?