NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press
Shannon Mullen, Asbury Park Press April 15, 2015
TRENTON – A jury has begun deliberating the fates of three rabbis, including Rabbi Mendel Epstein of Lakewood, and another man charged for their roles in a series of coerced religious divorces.
Jurors left the courtroom shortly after 2:30 p.m. and were released for the day by 4:30 p.m.
As a group, they have spent the past two months immersed in the obscure details and shadowy underside of how divorces are handled within the insular Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Lakewood.
Now they have to decide if the government proved its case against the four men beyond a reasonable doubt.
The central figure in the case is Epstein, 69, of Lakewood, the alleged mastermind behind the kidnappings of four recalcitrant husbands dating back to 2009.
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