Rabbi Pleads Guilty To Sexually Abusing Boys

Rabbi Stanley Levitt

A Philadelphia rabbi accused of preying on young boys in the 1970s — assaulting them in the hospital and in sleepovers at his former Brighton home — today pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexual assault, ending the case just as it was about to go to trial.

Stanley Levitt, 66, faces up to 40 years in prison when a judge sentences him tomorrow on four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child, according to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office. Prosecutors say they will seek prison time.

A trial for the former Brookline religious teacher was scheduled to start today.

According to authorities, all three of Levitt’s victims were sixth-grade students in 1975 and 1976 at a Jewish day school, where he taught in the mid-1970s. Two originally came forward with accusations that led to set of 2009 indictments, while the third came forward later, telling police Levitt assaulted him during a sleepover when the rabbi told him to take a shower before bed.

“The defendant’s full admission of guilt is proof that the men he abused as children were telling the truth when they finally shared their terrible secret,” Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said in a statement.

According to prosecutors, one student had been hospitalized after injuring his hand in an accident and was recuperating at Children’s Hospital in Boston when visited him in his hospital room and assaulted him.

A second victim was assaulted twice in 1975 during a weekend visit to Levitt’s former Chiswick Road home while the boy’s parents were out of town.

Levitt’s attorney was not immediately available for comment. Levitt was originally set to plead guilty to the charges in December 2011, but backed out last minute, saying he wanted to go to trial.