NY Orthodox Counselor Gets 103 Years for Sex Abuse

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

By COLLEEN LONG Associated Press
NEW YORK January 22, 2013 (AP)

A respected religious counselor in New York City's ultra-orthodox Jewish community was sentenced Tuesday to 103 years in prison for molesting a girl who came to him with questions about her faith.

Nechemya Weberman was convicted in December of 59 counts, including sustained sexual abuse of a child, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse.

The trial put a spotlight on the ultra-orthodox community in Brooklyn and its strict rules that govern clothing, social customs and interaction with the outside world. Both Weberman, 54, and the accuser belonged to the Satmar Hasidic sect.

The teen and her family have been harassed and ostracized, reflecting long-held beliefs that any conflict must be dealt with from within. During the trial, men were arrested on charges they tried to bribe the accuser and her now-husband to drop the case. Others were accused of snapping photos of her on the witness stand and posting them online.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ny-orthodox-counselor-guilty-abuse-faces-prison-18281710

[tblue]

1. Oh nice

Sounds like a real lovely congregation. They don't want the truth, and they want the woman silenced. What bullies! Evil bullies. I respect the Hasidim but they do keep their women covered, with wigs and heavy stockings. They're not the Taliban but its hard to say there's nothing they have in common with it.

[immoderate]

2. You respect the Hassidim?

Can you think of a reason why?

--imm

[get the red out]

3. The problem with religious sects and control

A religious sect can isolate their people to the point that they, in effect, don't have the same rights and recourse as your average citizen. This young woman and her family dared to exercise her rights, so they are abused by the group. The spotlight needs to be on how various closed groups deny people their rights as citizens for all intent and purposes.

[SunSeeker]

4. I don't respect any religion that does that to their women.

I had a good friend in college who escaped her family as a teen growing up in a Orthodox sect like that in New York, it might have even been the same one. They would not allow girls to read anything but a narrow range of books and girls could not go to college. She slit her mattress and hid forbidden books in it. She is was extremely bright and brave. She eventually ran away and enrolled in college on the west coast. She did so well she ended up with a scholarship for graduate work at a major university, where we met. I have since lost track of her after she moved out of the country. I shudder to think what would have become of her if she had stayed in that sect.

[frazzled]

5. He deserves prison time, but 103 years ...

That's considerably more time than priests accused of sexual abuse have gotten. For example:

It’s been a long and winding road from the house of the Lord to the house of correction but 83-year-old Albert LeBlanc was finally on his way Friday.

The former priest and convicted child molester was handed a 5 1/2-year prison sentence after earlier pleading guilty to years of assaults on young boys. ... LeBlanc faced 50 counts, all alleging sexual abuse of boys — some as young as nine — during his days in Yarmouth County where he worked first as a priest and later, after leaving the priesthood in 1975, as a probation officer.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/190141-former-yarmouth-priest-sentenced-to-5-12-years-for-sex-abuse

A former priest had more prison time tacked onto his sentence when he was sentenced again, for a second case of sexual assault, Thursday morning.
Timothy Evans, 44, was convicted of sexual assault by a person in a position of trust in both Larimer and Jefferson counties.

In Jefferson County on Thursday, Evans was sentenced to four years for sexually assaulting a 16- year-old boy who went to him for counseling in 1996.

That four-year sentence will be served consecutively with the 14-year sentence that was handed down Wednesday in Larimer County. That means that Evans will spend the next 18 years of his life behind bars.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/priest-sentenced-to-4-more-years-for-sex-assault-on-child

Just wondering about the disparity.

[Blue_Tires]

7. 59 counts adds up...

I also wonder if fraud came into play, since he charged the victim's parents out the ass for his counseling "services" -- iirc it was tens of thousands of dollars or something exorbitant...

[DollarBillHines]

8. It went further than that

For years, the District (?, or whatever they call them in NY) prosecutor refused to act on those allegations.

Then, he went away on vacation.

Bam!!

The lead activist - who was a member of the same sect - against the accused had acid flung in his face during jury deliberations. I was staying in the city while the trial was wrapping up and the whole thing was a huge deal.

[TheOther95Percent]

9. Comparing apples to oranges for one accounts for the disparity.

Each state sets its own sentencing terms. One example is from Colorado while the other is from Canada. In this instance, the sentence was magnified because the judge opted, as is his/her prerogative, to impose consecutive sentences on some of the lesser charges.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57565164/n.y-orthodox-jewish-counselor-gets-103-years-for-sex-abuse/

[CountAllVotes]

10. +1

n/t

[iandhr]

6. General pop.