NEW JERSEY
ABC News
TRENTON, N.J. — Feb 23, 2015
By SEAN CARLIN Associated Press
On grainy video, filmed from across a desk at his Lakewood home, a New Jersey rabbi told undercover FBI agents that his team of “tough guys” would jump Jewish husbands who wouldn’t divorce their wives by throwing hoods over their heads and handcuffing them.
“He’s going to be jumped, handcuffed and hooded,” Rabbi Mendel Epstein is heard telling the agents posing as a brother and sister seeking a divorce from her unwilling husband. “That takes 30 to 60 seconds. For 80 percent of the guys, it’s over right there.”
Prosecutors played the video in federal court Monday, the third day of Epstein’s trial on charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and attempted kidnapping.
His son and two other rabbis also are on trial in connection with a staged kidnapping in 2013 and three other forced divorces. His attorney, Robert Stahl, says some crimes were committed but don’t amount to “federal kidnapping.” He says Epstein was good at advocating for women and convincing husbands to grant divorces, a practice known as “a get.”
The female undercover agent who recorded the videos took the stand Monday for the second day; the defense is expected to question her Tuesday.
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