MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Daily
By S. I. Rosenbaum June 4, 2015
If you’ve followed the abrupt, strange downfall of Rabbi Barry Starr, the Commonwealth’s case against him goes a long way toward defending his character.
Starr was arraigned Tuesday, pleading not guilty to charges of embezzlement and larceny. He’s accused of misappropriating thousands of dollars in temple funds and loans from congregants at Temple Israel in Sharon, where he served as a rabbi for 28 years. The money allegedly went to pay off Nick Zemeitus, a Milton man who was allegedly blackmailing the rabbi over an alleged sexual encounter. (Zemeitus was arraigned last month on charges of extortion and larceny, and is being held on $400,000 cash bail.)
Yet as the District Attorney’s office lays out the charges against Starr, it also takes pains to counter what it says are “lies” Zemeitus told. For example: In an email found on Starr’s computer, Zemeitus wrote demanding money from Starr and threatening to expose what he said was a sexual liaison between Starr and Zemeitus’s brother, a sixteen-year-old boy. This detail, included in early police reports, was quickly repeated in media stories that did not debunk Zemeitus’s claim.
But as it turns out, Zemeitus admitted he was an only child. “Zemeitus lied in his emails about having a younger brother,” the DA’s office wrote in the statement. And police investigators found not even “a single incident of child pornography or allegations,” or any child porn images on Starr’s computer, the DA’s office wrote.
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