NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY
The Jewish Week
Wed, 06/19/2013
Ben Hirsch
On April 14, 2008, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a 62-year-old Brooklyn yeshiva teacher charged with sexually molesting two students, pleaded guilty to lesser charges of child endangerment. Under the plea agreement, Kolko made no admission of sexual wrongdoing and did not have to register as a sex offender or serve any time in prison. Rabbi Kolko was sentenced to three years’ probation.
On May 13, 2013, Yosef Kolko (Yosef is Rabbi Yehuda Kolko’s nephew), a 39-year-old Lakewood, N.J., haredi yeshiva teacher, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexual assault of a young yeshiva boy. Yosef Kolko, who has not yet been sentenced, is facing 15 to 40 years in prison.
These two cases are strikingly similar, so what accounts for the vastly different outcomes?
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