CBS News
A father was convinced his 16-year-old daughter was having a relationship with a 17-year-old boy, so the father set up a hidden camera in the house. What he recorded shocked him — what he saw the daughter doing to please the young man.
They are Orthodox Jews, in Brooklyn. The father had already taken the daughter to seek counseling with Rabbi Nechemya Weberman in years past. Just as he had taken her older sister. It is a common practice in the community for a respected person to be a counselor, or serve as a therapist. Weberman is affiliated, police said, with Brooklyn’s United Talmudic Community, a yeshiva.
Now, the father went to the Brooklyn DA’s office with the tape, and Rabbi Weberman. The Brooklyn DA’s office has set up special channels of communication to bridge cultural gaps that might be beneficial to both sides. However, the more that investigators talked to the parties involved — especially when they spoke with them separately — the more that there were questions which indicated something was not right. Around Feb. 16, the girl told a counselor at school that the rabbi has been raping her for years. The counselor reported it, and when the investigators talked to her again, she claimed there were at least 16 incidents at 263 Classon Avenue, in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn, which serves as Weberman’s home and office. It is where the counseling sessions took place. The girl told investigators it began in 2007, when she was 12; and continued through 2010. [...]
A father was convinced his 16-year-old daughter was having a relationship with a 17-year-old boy, so the father set up a hidden camera in the house. What he recorded shocked him — what he saw the daughter doing to please the young man.
They are Orthodox Jews, in Brooklyn. The father had already taken the daughter to seek counseling with Rabbi Nechemya Weberman in years past. Just as he had taken her older sister. It is a common practice in the community for a respected person to be a counselor, or serve as a therapist. Weberman is affiliated, police said, with Brooklyn’s United Talmudic Community, a yeshiva.
Now, the father went to the Brooklyn DA’s office with the tape, and Rabbi Weberman. The Brooklyn DA’s office has set up special channels of communication to bridge cultural gaps that might be beneficial to both sides. However, the more that investigators talked to the parties involved — especially when they spoke with them separately — the more that there were questions which indicated something was not right. Around Feb. 16, the girl told a counselor at school that the rabbi has been raping her for years. The counselor reported it, and when the investigators talked to her again, she claimed there were at least 16 incidents at 263 Classon Avenue, in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn, which serves as Weberman’s home and office. It is where the counseling sessions took place. The girl told investigators it began in 2007, when she was 12; and continued through 2010. [...]
There seems to be some information missing here.
ReplyDelete1) Who was with the girl in the video? the suspected boyfriend or Weberman?
2) We are told that the father went to the Brooklyn DA’s office with the tape, and Weberman. Why would Weberman be going along with the father to the DA's office if he was "the star" of the tape?
3)If he wasn't in the tape, why would he be involved with the girls tryst with her boyfriend?
4) We are told that detectives assembled sufficient preliminary evidence to start a case; and arrested Weberman on Wednesday. at the end of the article we are told that detectives are gathering information for a possible indictment. - If they don't have enough evidence yet for an indictment, then how could they arrest him?
For the lack of answers to the above questions, I will leave my mind open to the distinct possibility that the claim of Weberman's lawyer is correct, which is that the daughter is striking out in anger against her father who is trying to shut down her relationship with her boyfriend, and decided to slam Weberman in the process.
"Puzzled said...There seems to be some information missing here....(whatever)"
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty obvious that you are mangling up this very clear report written in very plain clear English. Read it again, and stop making it into a "tosphos" in the "gemara" because you don't have to be a "Gemara-kop" to get the "poshut pshat" of what happened. So stop lawyering on behalf of this miscreant.
This will all become horribly clearer as, r"l, more and more victims of this pervert come forth with their testimony in front of the grand jury which is a very serious matter.
Um, I'm not sure what happened, but one thing that's very clear is that this article not written in plain English. It is very hard to piece together what happened from the disjointed writing.
ReplyDeleteTo RAP:
ReplyDeleteI make no pretentions of being Weberman's lawyer, however the people who post such stories seek to have him convicted in the courtrooms of the mind of the reader. I, for one, have been trained to judge only when I have all the facts in hand. Currently, I don’t feel that I do.
I happen to think of myself quite proficient in the English language and of having a fair level of reading comprehension, nevertheless I really was left puzzled after reading the article.
If it's so obvious to you, then perhaps you'd like to help those less endowed than you, and take the time to answer my clear questions.
Should more evidence come out in the future, we can judge on that at the time. My final question remains, what was the evidence used to make the initial arrest?
The young lady was acting in an immoral fashion because she had been abused and raped by the "rabbi" since age 12. A very common reaction in such unfortunate cases.
ReplyDeleteRebbeca,
ReplyDeleteIs this your answer to my question what was the evidence used to make the initial arraignment?
Is this considered the new norm of "proof" in today's day and age?
A young person is acting out immorally, so we just look around for the closest rabbi or person of authority in their life and arrest them for assault and molestation?
Based on this logic, they could have also arrested her father, or any other person of authority with whom she was having issues about her choice of "social life"!
"Puzzled said...I make no pretentions of being Weberman's lawyer"
ReplyDeleteRaP: But you are sure acting/talking like you are.
"however the people who post such stories seek to have him convicted in the courtrooms of the mind of the reader."
RaP: This was a news report about a breaking story, no one has been "convicted" yet of anything, that will come at the end no doubt.
"I, for one, have been trained to judge only when I have all the facts in hand. Currently, I don’t feel that I do."
RaP: Repeat, this a breaking story and nothing more, it is you that is trying to discredit reporting, cut off discussions and curtail observations of what is happening at this opening stage. Why is that?
"I happen to think of myself quite proficient in the English language and of having a fair level of reading comprehension, nevertheless I really was left puzzled after reading the article."
RaP: Your response was to mangle and twist this very simple and clear news report beyond comprehension, as if you were a hybrid lawyer-pilpulist of the worst sort.
"If it's so obvious to you, then perhaps you'd like to help those less endowed than you, and take the time to answer my clear questions."
RaP: Sure, but unlike you I am going to follow the KISS rule: Keep It Simple, Stupid!
"Should more evidence come out in the future, we can judge on that at the time."
RaP: Was that a "question"?
"My final question remains, what was the evidence used to make the initial arrest?"
RaP: What "evidence"? Don't you know that, if one comes to the police, or when being legally deposed in a deposition or called before a grand jury to tall under oath, or when in the witness stand in secular courts as in batei din everything depends on "STATEMENTS" as the key! And in this case, the report says that EVERYONE was questioned about this incident that was reported to the police by the father of the girl, and based on that, inconsistencies were found and new information came forth, in addition to which more people came forward making statements and that led to enough serious concern on the police and the DA that a grand jury was set up to deal with this matter, and right now they are also asking for and hearing STATEMENTS, and presumably based on that they are issuing subpoenas and calling on more people to appear before them and make their STATEMENTS under OATH, a method that is used both in secular US courts as it was used in Torah batei din that required a "shvua" ("oath") to supplement statements in front of dayanim.
Mr. Still Puzzled
ReplyDeleteI was not at all trying to show proof that her accusations are true.I was just trying to connect the dots for you in regard to your questions 1 thru 3 in your originial post.
As was stated by Rap he was arrested because of her statement and the inconsistencies in their stories.
I believe God willing that the truth will come out and that justice will be served.