NEW JERSEY
NJ.com
By MaryAnn Spoto | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on March 31, 2015
TRENTON —Attorneys in the federal conspiracy trial of a Lakewood rabbi accused of arranging forced religious divorces are clashing over whether one of the charges against his son – accused of beating husbands into compliance– should be dismissed.
As the trial of Rabbi Mendel Epstein wound up its seventh week of testimony on Tuesday, the defense attorney for his son, David “Ari” Epstein continued to press with jurors the younger man’s alibi for one of the alleged beatings.
Jurors have seen phone records, hotel records, photographs and meeting schedules indicating Epstein was in Ohio on Aug. 22, 2011. And they’ve heard from one of Epstein’s business associates and one of his workers who claim Epstein was with them that day on a trip to Kaeser & Blair Inc. in Batavia, Ohio.
Because of that evidence, defense attorney Henry Mazurek wants one of the kidnapping charges against his client dismissed.
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