NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park press
Shannon Mullen, Asbury Park Press April 16, 2015
TRENTON – The jury in the federal conspiracy and kidnapping trial of three rabbis – including Rabbi Mendel Epstein, of Lakewood – and a fourth defendant, Epstein’s son and alleged enforcer, deliberated throughout the day Thursday without reaching a verdict.
The panel of six men and six women are scheduled to resume deliberations Monday.
Epstein, 69, is the alleged mastermind behind a series of assaults on men who refused to grant their wives divorces in accordance with Jewish law. He could face life in prison if convicted of kidnapping.
Some of the men testified during the trial that they were hooded, handcuffed, beaten, stomped and shocked into submission with a stun gun or cattle prod.
The attorneys for Epstein and his co-defendants – his son, David Epstein, of Lakewood, and two other rabbis, Jay Goldstein and Benyamin Stimler – say the government over-reached in trying the men on kidnapping-related charges.
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