NEW YORK
Frum Follies
Many of us fought hard to help Kenneth Thompson win election as Brooklyn DA because he promised to end the Hynes era discrimination against orthodox Jewish children. Under Hynes, orthodox child molesters usually got sweetheart deals, if there was any prosecution at all. Any ultra orthodox Jew who dared to go to the civil authorities was subjected to intimidation. Sam Kellner was even set up with false extortion and perjury charges, all to protect a notorious molester, Baruch Lebovits. Under Hynes, Sex Crimes staff were told to refer all intimidation complaints to Louise Cohen. She in turn was supposed to pass the complaints to the Rackets Division under Michael Vecchione. There was almost never any effective follow-up.
Thompson has kept his promise to diligently prosecute sex crimes even when the offenders are orthodox Jews. Thompson did exonerate Sam Kellner. Mr. Thompson’s office has vacated some wrongful convictions and is actively reviewing others. But Thompson has an abysmal record at dealing with witness intimidation. To date he has never shown any results at prosecuting those who intimidated orthodox victims and their supporters. Ken Thompson has never sanctioned the staff in his office responsible for screwing up the Lebovits case (ADA Miss Gregory) or pursuing the Kellner case. Instead, Joe Alexis was promoted and Nicholas Batsides still works there. The office has not brought charges against the Ashkenazi brothers (Zalmen and Berel) responsible for intimidating and bribing witnesses, or members of the Lebovits family who did the same.
Mr. Thompson was photographed hugging Moshe (Gabbai) Friedman who perjured himself to set up Sam Kellner. He attended a massive event headlined by the Satmar Rebbe, Aaron Teitelbaum, who famously called the witness against Weberman a whore. But Thompson is not seen publicly with those who defend victims. Nor does his office meet with them privately. During his campaign he relied on Yossi Gestetner, a PR flack notorious for his propaganda on behalf Nechemya Weberman. Mr. Thompson has held large private meetings orchestrated by Ezra Friedlander with Haredi leadership including many of the people notorious for defending molesters and intimidating victims.
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