NEW JERSEY
The Journal News
TRENTON, N.J. – When two undercover agents called posing as a brother and sister looking to obtain a divorce from the sister’s unwilling husband, a Monsey rabbi told them that New Jersey Rabbi Mendel Epstein was a “hired hand” who could be “very helpful” to them.
Epstein “is a hired hand,” Rabbi Martin “Mordechai” Wolmark is heard telling the agents in 2013. “Mendel Epstein’s not a bad guy, he’s a good guy. … He’ll be very helpful.”
Prosecutors played those recordings on Thursday, the second day of trial for Epstein and his three co-defendants: son David Epstein, Jay Goldstein and Binyamin Stimler.
Mendel Epstein is accused of employing a kidnap team to force unwilling Jewish husbands to divorce their wives. The defendants face charges including conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted kidnapping stemming from a staged kidnapping in 2013 and three other forced divorces.
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