NEW YORK
New York Magazine
By Margaret Hartmann
Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes has announced that he’ll push for a state law adding rabbis and other religious leaders to the list of professionals required to report allegations of sexual abuse to the authorities. Presumably, this has nothing to do with the Jewish Daily Forward reporting that Hynes was hiding the names of ultra-Orthodox Jews accused of sex crimes and the ensuing New York Times exposé.
Hynes became the subject of intense media scrutiny after he refused to release the names of 85 ultra-Orthodox Jews arrested for sex crimes, due to the “very tight-knit and insular” nature of the Brooklyn community. He was accused of having a far too cozy relationship with leaders of the religious community, and being more lenient with ultra-Orthodox Jewish abusers than others accused of sex crimes. Now Hynes is changing his tune. Last week he revealed plans for a crack down on witness intimidation in child sexual abuse cases in the ultra-Orthodox community (an idea proposed by former Mayor Ed Koch, who publicly criticized Hynes), and declaring that rabbis and other religious leaders should be mandatory reporters of abuse.
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