Brooklyn Safety Official Charged with Raping 16-year-old Girl

By Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News
May 10, 2018

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/brooklyn-safety-official-charged-raping-16-year-old-girl-article-1.3982706

An official with an influential neighborhood watch group in Brooklyn has been charged with raping a 16-year-old girl, police said Thursday.

Jacob Daskal, 59, who runs the Shomrim's Brooklyn South Safety Patrol, a Hasidic neighborhood watch group, abused the girl between August and November of last year, police said.

Daskal was charged with rape and criminal sex act, plus three misdemeanors — forcible touching, sex abuse and acting in a manner injurious to a child, authorities said.

Shomrim's links to law enforcement have been a subplot in the ongoing federal probe involving two businessmen and a number of NYPD supervisors.

In 2016, the FBI investigated what role the supervisors may have played in securing gun licenses for members of Shomrim.

Alex (Shaya) Lichtenstein pleaded guilty in May of that year to bribing NYPD cops in exchange for expedited gun permits.

Daskal, who lives in Borough Park and has strong ties to the NYPD, was not charged in that case.

But the safety patrol leader has been politically active.

He donated $1,000 to Mayor de Blasio's run for public advocate in 2009. Additionally, he has given slightly more than $4,500 to state Sen. Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) over the past decade, campaign finance records reveal.

Daskal is a big machar in the community as well.

Daskal was charged with rape and criminal sex act, plus three misdemeanors — forcible touching, sex abuse and acting in a manner injurious to a child. (Linda Rosier/New York Daily News)

Just last week he was coordinating a street closure with police for an event in Borough Park, sources said.

He has frequently been photographed with NYPD brass over the years.

In his role as a Shomrim leader, he has defended the volunteer organization amid accusations of abuse by some members.

He described members who were accused of bribing police officials as "bad apples" during an interview with The New York Times in 2016.

"It's a very sad reality in our community that you have many people dedicated to helping and a small minority of critics on the sidelines questioning our motives," Daskal said at the time. "It's always the good ones who get criticized."

The group, he maintained, did not expect anything in return from police.

"Maybe a mitzvah," he said, using Hebrew for a "good deed," "or a feeling that our community is safe," he told The Times.

The group insists it merely holds suspects until the police arrive.

But that wasn't the case with Taj Patterson, a young black man, who was assaulted by members as he was walking home in Williamsburg on Dec. 1, 2013. Shomrim members — who were looking for a car vandal in the area — blinded Patterson, who was then 22, in his right eye duing a violent beatdown.