On the campaign trail, Ken Thompson, the Democratic
candidate for Brooklyn district attorney, has sharply criticized incumbent
Charles Hynes’ prosecution of a prominent Hasidic advocate against sexual
abuse, even attending a rally calling for charges against the man to be
dropped.
But Thompson, who is widely expected to win the November 5 election,
is now hedging his position on the case of Sam Kellner.
“As the D.A. I’m going to get in and look at all the
evidence I’m not [currently] privy to,” said Thompson, when asked about the
case.
Beyond that, in an October 30 interview with the Forward,
Thompson refused to discuss the Kellner case, or his own previous statements
questioning Kellner’s guilt.
Asked why it was proper for him to comment in July, when he
was a candidate for district attorney in the Democratic Party primary, but not
now, Thompson said that since he won the nomination in September he can no
longer comment on the case.
“There’s a difference,” Thompson told the Forward. But he
acknowledged that given his earlier appearance at the rally for Kellner, “it
may appear that I took a position.”
Kellner was arrested in April, 2011, on charges of extortion
and bribery related to a landmark sex abuse conviction that has since
collapsed.
Prosecutors said that Kellner paid a witness $10,000 to
falsely testify that he was sexually abused by Baruch Lebovits, whom Kellner
says also abused his own son.
Kellner was also charged with trying to extort
the Lebovits family over the abuse allegations.
Kellner’s trial, which has been delayed several times, is
due to begin November 12.
Thompson’s campaign website still refers to Kellner’s
prosecution as “botched”. It’s a fair characterization, given that prosecutors
admitted in a pre-trial hearing, in July, that a key witness in the case
against Kellner gave contradictory testimony.
But Thompson’s site goes on to claim, erroneously, that
“Lebovits’s lawyers used the Kellner prosecution to have his conviction
overturned.” In fact, Lebovits’s conviction was reversed because prosecutors
withheld a key piece of evidence from the defense at Lebovits’ trial.
Asked about the error regarding Lebovits’s case, Thompson
repeated that it was “not proper” for him to comment on pending cases. Thompson
stunned political observers in September when he won the Democratic nomination
for District Attorney, beating Hynes, who has held the office for 24 years.
Hynes conceded and offered to smooth Thompson’s transition
into office. Then, in a dramatic reversal, Hynes changed his mind and opted to
run on the Republican ticket.
The Brooklyn D.A.’s race has been marred by mud-slinging on
both sides, including vicious Yiddish-language ads. One ad, posted in two
Satmar newspapers, blamed Thompson’s primary victory on “the minority element
that seeks lawlessness.”
Supporters of Thompson, who is black, have condemned the ad
as racist. Hynes denied having sponsored the ad. At the same time, he denied it
was racist.
Thompson told the Forward that the ad was “disgraceful.”
He also criticized Hynes for his previous statements
labeling the ultra-Orthodox community as “worse than the mafia.” Hynes was
referring to the prevalence of witness intimidation against victims of sex
abuse who choose to cooperate with police.
“The mafia kills. The mafia murders,” Thompson said. “And
for [Hynes] as a top prosecutor to compare any community in Brooklyn to the
mafia is wrong.”
Thompson said that he would wait until he was in office
before he makes a decision about whether to continue Kol Tzedek, a program
started by Hynes to combat sex abuse in the Orthodox community.
Hynes controversially refused to divulge names of people
accused and even convicted of abuse against Orthodox children. He argued that
shielding perpetrators’ names protected the identity of the victim.
Thompson has vowed to end the practice.
By Paul Berger - Forward.com
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