Epstein Torture Trial - David Wax links Epstein to the torture of Bryskman to give a Get

NJ.Com    In the ongoing federal conspiracy trial of Rabbi Mendel Epstein, David Wax detailed the roles of three of the four men accused of resorting to violence in exchange for large sums of cash to extract divorces from unwilling husbands.

Wax, the founder of a charitable organization that funneled millions of dollars to Israel, directly linked Epstein and two of the three other men on trial with him to the 2010 attack on Yisrael Bryskman, an Israeli national who was living in Brooklyn to avoid giving his wife a divorce according to Orthodox Jewish custom.

On the witness stand for the entire day on Wednesday, Wax said he and Epstein had phone discussions about forcing Bryskman to agree to the divorce -known as a get - at Wax's Lakewood home.

He said Epstein wanted $50,000 from the family of Bryskman's wife "to pay the people who were going to come." [...]

Bryskman testified on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson in Trenton that his attackers blindfolded him, cuffed his hands behind his back and bound his legs before repeatedly beating and kicking him. The attack occurred late Oct. 16, 2010, and continued into the early morning hours of the following day.

Bryskman couldn't identify anyone other than Wax as his attackers, but Wax on Wednesday said Ari Epstein and his unknown friend threw the first punches before he joined in.

At one point, Wax donned a white cowboy hat and pulled Bryskman's head up by his hair to ask him how he liked the hat, Wax admitted.

He said Goldstein was present to write the official get document before everyone left.

Wax also testified that after the attack was over, he got into a cab with Bryskman and took him to an automated teller machine to withdraw the money. The cash - which Bryskman eventually did not retrieve - was to pay for the rug in Wax's bedroom that Bryskman had bloodied during the attack, Wax said.

Wax said he attempted to have Bryskman's father pay $100,000 in ransom but insisted the money was intended as child support for Bryskman's wife.

In the four weeks that federal prosecutors have been calling witnesses, Wax, who has admitted to the kidnaping and brutal beating of one of those husbands, has provided the most potentially damaging testimony so far. [...]