BishopAccountability.org
	Bramly Case Dismissed Jewish News of Greater Phoenix September 16, 2010 http://www.jewishaz.com/issues/story.mv?100917+bramly Nearly six months after his arrest, the criminal case against Rabbi Bryan Bramly has been dismissed. Accepting the prosecution's Dismissal on Recommendation, New York County Supreme Court Justice Rena Uviller on Sept. 15 dismissed all pending charges. In a letter that he planned to send out that day, Bramly wrote that the dismissal of charges of rape and sexual abuse of a 7-year-old girl brought "this six-month nightmare to an end." "This is better than winning after trial," attorney Michael Shapiro, one of Bramly's lawyers, told Jewish News after the dismissal. "The District Attorney's Office today admitted that they didn't have enough evidence to bring the case to trial." Bramly was arrested March 23 in the parking lot of Temple Beth Sholom of the East Valley in Chandler by members of the U.S. Marshals Child Predator Apprehension Team and detectives with the New York Police Department's Manhattan Child Abuse Unit. In a Sept. 15 letter to Bramly's lawyers, New York County Assistant District Attorney Rachel Ferrari wrote that there were inconsistencies in evidence and that the complainant was unable to remember details of the alleged incident. "At this time, we no longer believe that we could sustain our burden at trial of proving the charges beyond a reasonable doubt," Ferrari wrote in the letter, which her office provided to Jewish News. Bramly, 45, was alleged to have raped the girl in March 2000 when she was spending the night at his family's residence in New York City, where he was completing his studies to become a rabbi. The girl - now 17 - reported the rape to the authorities in August 2009, according to the Marshals Service. Bramly, who started at TBS-EV, a Conservative synagogue, in August 2006, received his rabbinical ordination earlier that year from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He is married with two children. In a press release issued by his defense team, Bramly said, "These baseless allegations against me have left us in financial peril, traumatized my family, torn my congregation apart and led my synagogue's board to request my resignation." After his arrest, Bramly was placed on administrative leave by TBS-EV. In August, the synagogue's board asked him to step down as the congregation's spiritual leader. At the time, the rabbi told Jewish News that he had a contract through June 30, 2014, adding, "I am intending to defend my rights under the contract." When asked for his reaction to the dismissal of the case, Joel Munter, president of the TBS-EV board, would not discuss the personnel matter, but said, "On a personal level, I'm thrilled for Rabbi Bramly and his family." Citing hashbon nefesh, the accounting of the soul that Jews are to do in preparation for Yom Kippur, Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman, president of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix, said, "I pray that the girl gets whatever help she needs and that Rabbi Bramly will be able to once again use his training and his passion to serve the Jewish people, and that he'll be given an opportunity to do so." After the case's dismissal, Bramly's lawyers, Shapiro and Alan Lewis of Carter Ledyard and Milburn in New York, told Jewish News that, despite the publicity the case received, no other witnesses stepped forward with similar allegations."As anyone who follows these kinds of cases knows, true child molesters don't do it one time in their life and then never again, especially people who are in a position that puts them around children - such as a rabbi," Shapiro said. "How many times can you say nothing ever happened, that the authorities jumped the gun, and now they're doing the right thing?" asked Shapiro. "They haven't said, 'Oops, we're sorry,' but somebody should."
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