NEW YORK
The New York Times
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
MAY 16, 2014
A sexual abuse case that divided the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn and created rifts in the borough’s district attorney’s office ended on Friday as a once-prominent cantor pleaded guilty to molestation.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, the cantor, Baruch Lebovits, will receive a sentence of two years, but will receive credit for the 13 months he has already served under a previous conviction on the same charges.
The initial conviction in 2010, which was overturned, was seen as a high-profile victory for Charles J. Hynes, then the district attorney, who was trying to combat criticism that he was too lenient in prosecuting sexual abuse cases among ultra-Orthodox Jews. Mr. Lebovits was found guilty of molesting a teenage boy on eight occasions several years earlier, and was sentenced to between 10 ½ and 32 years in prison.
But in 2012, an appeals court overturned the conviction and authorized his release, ruling that he had been deprived of a fair trial because prosecutors took too long to turn over a detective’s notes about a witness.
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