NEW YORK
New York Daily News
By Oren Yaniv / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, December 10, 2012, 3:06 PM
Guilty 59 times over.
A Brooklyn jury found Nechemya Weberman – a prominent figure in the Satmar Hasidic community – guilty Monday of sexually abusing a rebellious young girl he was paid to counsel.
The verdict came after an explosive two-week trial, where customs of the strict Williamsburg-based sect were aired in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
He is facing a maximum of 25 years on prison of the top count alone, prolonged sexual conduct against a child.
The main evidence against the 54-year-old counselor was testimony from the victim, who turned 18 last week. During four brutal days of testimony and cross-examination, the striking young woman recounted how she was forced to perform oral sex and reenact porn scenes during closed-door counseling sessions that started in 2007, when she was 12.
Her yeshiva referred her to Weberman because she flouted her sect’s strict modesty rules and asked probing questions about the existence of God.
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