NEW YORK
Wall Street Journal
By Pervaiz Shallwani
The young woman who accused a respected ultra-Orthodox Jewish counselor of sexual abuse wrapped up her testimony Friday afternoon, telling jurors that she came forward because she felt a sense of “responsibility.”
Asked by prosecutors why she decided to step forward after three years of allegedly being abused by Nechemya Weberman, 54 years old, the 17-year-old testified, “I felt like I had a responsibility.”
“I didn’t want anybody else to go through what I went through,” she said.
Asked why she did not come forward sooner, the girl said ”I thought they would never believe me, because he is supposedly a God in Williamsburg.”
The girl also told jurors that Weberman made her watch pornography on a computer in his office.
She spent more than 15 hours over four days on the stand in Brooklyn Supreme Court. The majority of the young woman’s testimony came during tough questioning from defense attorneys, who argue the girl singled out their client and the Satmar sect because of its ultra-Orthodox policies as pay back for the arrest of a former love interest.
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