NEW JERSEY
USA Today
TRENTON, N.J. — A rabbi who is charged in a kidnap-torture scheme that used cattle prods to force Orthodox Jewish husbands to grant their wives divorces has been responsible for 20 or so kidnappings, a prosecutor alleged Wednesday.
The remarks of Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Joseph Gribko were made in federal court in Trenton, N.J., during a bail hearing for six of the 10 defendants who were charged in the plot.
“He’s conducted ongoing criminal activity for 20 years,” Gribko said of Rabbi Mendel Epstein. “Kidnappings, beatings.”
Epstein — who will remain under home confinement at his house in Lakewood, N.J., once released — denies any wrongdoing, his Manhattan-based attorney, Susan Necheles, said in court.
“It’s a matter for trial,” she said.
But the case is growing, Gribko said during his appeal to U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Douglas E. Arpert to keep Epstein locked up.
“My phone has not stopped ringing with calls from potential victims,” he said, mentioning the hotline for those calls, 800-CALL-FBI. “The threat to the public is ongoing as we speak.”
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