NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal
By Pervaiz Shallwani
In an unexpected twist, four men were questioned Thursday for illegally taking cellphone photos during the sexual-abuse trial of a respected ultra-Orthodox Jewish counselor, including one shot that captures the alleged victim testifying on the stand.
The four were being questioned by investigators Thursday and were expected to be charged with criminal contempt, a law-enforcement official said.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Ingram halted the trial of Nechemya Weberman, 54 years old, after learning that courtroom photos were shot and distributed over the Internet. The judge then cleared the courtroom and made the roughly 50 spectators check their phones with court officers. The trial was halted for about 30 minutes and resumed in the afternoon.
“It’s against the law for people to take photos in the courtroom,” Justice Ingram scolded the audience. “This is not a game. This is a very serious case.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.