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	Bar Mitzvah Lessons Teacher Sentenced in Abuse Case Baltimore Sun March 11, 2008 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-abuse0311,0,2955160.story A former teacher of bar mitzvah lessons who was active in Baltimore's Orthodox Jewish community has been sentenced to a suspended five-year prison term and five years of probation after having been accused of abusing two boys more than a decade ago, according to city prosecutors. Israel Shapiro agreed to an Alford plea and the judge entered a finding of guilt to child sexual abuse and a third-degree sex offense. Under an Alford plea, a defendant denies guilt but concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction. Baltimore Circuit Judge John P. Miller ordered Shapiro to stay away from the victims, to have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18, to pay $10,800 in restitution to one of the boys and to perform 300 hours of community service. At a hearing Monday, Miller also ordered Shapiro to undergo sex offender screening and treatment, but he will not have to register as a sex offender with the state because the registry did not exist when the crimes occurred. Police have said in charging documents that the abuse occurred on separate occasions in September 1988 and June 1994, when the boys were 12 and 13 years old. Police said the boys were learning to chant passages from the Torah at Shapiro's home on Olympia Avenue. Accusations against Shapiro were known throughout Baltimore's Orthodox community for years when the victims circulated fliers with his name and picture. One of the posters was put on the Web site of the Awareness Center Inc., an advocacy group on behalf of Jewish victims of sexual abuse in Baltimore.
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