Police told of several attacks before New Square man was burned

NEW SQUARE — Windows were shattered, cars were vandalized and groups of men protested outside Aron Rottenberg's house well before he was badly burned confronting a man with an incendiary device.

Rottenberg and his friends called Ramapo police eight times in the fall, claiming they were being tormented for opting to pray outside of the Hasidic congregation, a Journal News review of police records shows.

But although patrols were increased, detectives did not get involved until last month — when windows were smashed on the family's Truman Avenue home.

That probe was still going on when Rottenberg was seriously burned early May 22. He remains at Westchester Medical Center, where he underwent additional surgery Tuesday.

The suspect, 18-year-old Shaul Spitzer, is charged with attempted murder and arson.

Spitzer, a butler at the home of New Square Grand Rabbi David Twersky and cousin of the village's deputy mayor, was also burned during the incident and is at a New York City hospital.

Detective Sgt. John Lynch of the Ramapo police said he became aware of the other incidents — most of which he described as minor — only after the Rottenberg house was vandalized May 14.

"A call like a broken window, a standalone case like that is not going to make it to the detective bureau," Lynch said Wednesday. "We have approximately 55,000 calls a year. In the real world here, if there's no forensic evidence or need for a further investigation, the investigation is conducted by the police officers handling the incident.

New Square is run by the Skver Hasidic sect, whose leadership and rabbinical court issued a letter in November warning that it was a serious violation not to worship in the main synagogue and that anyone who prayed elsewhere must be stopped from using the community's facilities.

But the first signs of internal strife came two months earlier, in mid-September, shortly after Rottenberg and some friends started praying regularly at the Friedwald House senior residence outside the village.

On Sept. 13, he and two other men reported that windows on their cars had been smashed.

Five weeks later, on Friday, Oct. 22, another friend, Jacob Surkis, reported that the license plates were stolen from his van. He told police that whoever stole his plates was trying to "make his life difficult" because of his decision where to pray.

That same day, Rottenberg called police to report harassment and suspicious activity around his house.

He said there was a knock on his upstairs bedroom window at 4:30 that morning and when he looked outside, he found a block of wood that he assumed had been used to reach the window.

He claimed that three days earlier, someone had left a message on his phone at 5:11 a.m. advising him not to send his 15-year-old daughter to school so she would not be embarrassed.

When he opened his front door at 8:45, her school desk and other belongings were on the front porch.

He told police he stopped sending her to school at that point and asked if they could increase their patrols in the village, with emphasis on his neighborhood — especially early Saturday mornings.

"Rottenberg advises that there is a small group of men who have decided to attend schul (sic) outside of the village and that all of these men have been tormented ever since," police said in an Oct. 22 report.

The next night, as many as 50 men gathered outside Rottenberg's home and he called police.

The group dispersed when cops arrived and the officers warned Rottenberg to stay out of harm's way and not confront the group.

Police suggested Rottenberg videotape such gatherings in case suspects ever needed to be identified.

Rottenberg asked the officers to speak with Mendel Berger, who lived around the corner, suggesting that Berger held some sway over the group and could get them to stop. But Berger told the officers he wanted nothing to do with the situation.

An hour later, the block was filled with hundreds of community residents who had blocked the road with metal barriers.

Most were there protesting Rottenberg, his wife told police, but there was also a group supporting him. The officers eventually got the crowd to leave the area.

Rottenberg's wife called police just before 1 a.m. Oct. 29 to report that someone had smashed a rear bedroom window.

She said people in the community were trying to force the family to move out.
That Sabbath, a friend, Mordechai Surkis, stayed at the house while the Rottenbergs were away.

An officer was patrolling Truman Avenue just after 3 a.m. Oct. 30 when Surkis approached to say that a window in the house had been broken. The officer reported that he had seen a group of about a dozen Hasidic teenagers just before Surkis came outside, but that the group had left the area.

The next day, Jacob Surkis told police that his car windshield was smashed on Washington Avenue.

That was the last report to police until May 14, when three windows were smashed at the Rottenberg house around 3 a.m.

Detective Sgt. Lynch said police do not believe that Spitzer was involved in that incident and that they have two teen suspects and expect to make an arrest.

The May 14 vandalism prompted the family to install video surveillance cameras and — for the first time — led to an investigation by Ramapo detectives.

Lynch said detectives get called in only when crimes have patterns or when there are higher level felonies involved.

"In some cases, the challenge is the lack of evidence, the lack of witnesses," Lynch said. "The fact is we don't have enough evidence or witnesses to prosecute offenders in some of the cases. I mean — the police officers weren't present when these crimes occurred."

On Sept. 13, he and two other men reported that windows on their cars had been smashed.

Five weeks later, on Friday, Oct. 22, another friend, Jacob Surkis, reported that the license plates were stolen from his van. He told police that whoever stole his plates was trying to "make his life difficult" because of his decision where to pray.

That same day, Rottenberg called police to report harassment and suspicious activity around his house.

He said there was a knock on his upstairs bedroom window at 4:30 that morning and when he looked outside, he found a block of wood that he assumed had been used to reach the window.

He claimed that three days earlier, someone had left a message on his phone at 5:11 a.m. advising him not to send his 15-year-old daughter to school so she would not be embarrassed.

When he opened his front door at 8:45, her school desk and other belongings were on the front porch.

He told police he stopped sending her to school at that point and asked if they could increase their patrols in the village, with emphasis on his neighborhood — especially early Saturday mornings.

"Rottenberg advises that there is a small group of men who have decided to attend schul (sic) outside of the village and that all of these men have been tormented ever since," police said in an Oct. 22 report.

The next night, as many as 50 men gathered outside Rottenberg's home and he called police.

The group dispersed when cops arrived and the officers warned Rottenberg to stay out of harm's way and not confront the group.

Police suggested Rottenberg videotape such gatherings in case suspects ever needed to be identified.

Rottenberg asked the officers to speak with Mendel Berger, who lived around the corner, suggesting that Berger held some sway over the group and could get them to stop. But Berger told the officers he wanted nothing to do with the situation.

An hour later, the block was filled with hundreds of community residents who had blocked the road with metal barriers.

Most were there protesting Rottenberg, his wife told police, but there was also a group supporting him. The officers eventually got the crowd to leave the area.

Rottenberg's wife called police just before 1 a.m. Oct. 29 to report that someone had smashed a rear bedroom window.

She said people in the community were trying to force the family to move out.
That Sabbath, a friend, Mordechai Surkis, stayed at the house while the Rottenbergs were away.

An officer was patrolling Truman Avenue just after 3 a.m. Oct. 30 when Surkis approached to say that a window in the house had been broken. The officer reported that he had seen a group of about a dozen Hasidic teenagers just before Surkis came outside, but that the group had left the area.

The next day, Jacob Surkis told police that his car windshield was smashed on Washington Avenue.

That was the last report to police until May 14, when three windows were smashed at the Rottenberg house around 3 a.m.

Detective Sgt. Lynch said police do not believe that Spitzer was involved in that incident and that they have two teen suspects and expect to make an arrest.

The May 14 vandalism prompted the family to install video surveillance cameras and — for the first time — led to an investigation by Ramapo detectives.

Lynch said detectives get called in only when crimes have patterns or when there are higher level felonies involved.

"In some cases, the challenge is the lack of evidence, the lack of witnesses," Lynch said. "The fact is we don't have enough evidence or witnesses to prosecute offenders in some of the cases. I mean — the police officers weren't present when these crimes occurred."

Russian mob eclipses Italian Mafia in South Florida, FBI says

Alex Simchuk is a suspect at large in a South Beach nightclub ring roundup.



















The Eastern European mob has eclipsed the Italian Mafia on the FBI’s radar in South Florida, as several recent major cases have brought to light.


When the feds busted a syndicate of Russian-speaking nightclub owners and their so-called Bar Girls, it seemed like just another titillating tale from South Beach.

But the April bust showed that the FBI is taking the Eastern European mob a lot more seriously these days than the Italian Mafia. La Cosa Nostra is no longer the bureau’s Public Enemy No. 1 when it comes to organized crime in South Florida.

“Eurasian organized crime is our No. 1 priority,” said FBI supervisory special agent Rick Brodsky of the Miami office.

In April, six reputed members of an Eastern European network — along with a Sunny Isles investor and 10 Bar Girls imported mostly from Latvia and Estonia — were charged with conspiring to seduce and fleece unsuspecting South Beach tourists by running up their credit card bills for booze at private clubs on Washington Avenue. The prosecution’s case has moved so quickly that two of the “B-Girls’’ girls plan to plead guilty on Thursday in Miami federal court.

One defense lawyer quipped that they’re about to become “G-Girls,” as in guilty.

Sunny Isles Beach, where some of the reputed mobsters live, has so many immigrants from the former Soviet Union that it has earned the nickname “Little Moscow.’’ The high-rise coastal cities of Hollywood and Hallandale Beach also are home to many Russian-speaking nationals.

The alleged B-Girl scam was hardly the first time the Eastern European mob struck South Florida. In February, 13 South Florida members and associates of an alleged Armenian crime organization were charged with extortion and other offenses as part of a series of indictments against more than 100 suspects from Miami to Los Angeles.

The main extortion charge accused ringleader Aram Khranyan, 41, of Sunny Isles Beach, and others of threatening “physical violence” against a man if he did not pay a $12,000 debt to a member of Khranyan’s organization.

Despite the nationwide publicity, it didn’t quite measure up to the B-Girl scam for sheer amusement.

Consider this tale:

Brett Daniels, a professional magician, had just finished his February show at the Gulfstream Casino when he and a few colleagues headed down to South Beach.

At Mango’s, a lively tourist spot on Ocean Drive, he met an attractive woman clad in a short leopard-skin dress and her sidekick, who wasn’t as pretty. After showing them a few magic tricks, one of the girls told Daniels it was her birthday and proposed taking him to a private club a few blocks away to drink Russian vodka.

Four or five shots later -- he can’t remember exactly -- Daniels found himself fighting over an incomprehensible $1,368 credit card tab with the owner of the Tangia club on Washington Avenue. “Pay your bill or you’re going to jail,” the bouncer told him.

What Daniels didn’t know at the time was that he had been scammed by the Eastern European mob, according to the FBI.

At the helm of the alleged South Beach club racket: Alec Simchuk, 44, of Hallandale, who is now a fugitive. Simchuck and others in his network -- including Albert Takhalov, 29, of Aventura -- brought in longtime Sunny Isles real estate broker Isaac Feldman as an investor in Stars Lounge on Washington Avenue.

Feldman, who lost his bid for a city commission seat last year, plans to fight the charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud. His attorney, Myles Malman, said his client was a “minority investor” in the Stars Lounge, which was controlled by Simchuk and Takhalov.


“He was hardly ever there and he didn’t supervise or control the women,” said Malman, a former federal prosecutor. “He did not operate or run this club. The notion that the Russian mob is involved in this club is far fetched and the ultimate stretch.”

Malman then added: “My client lost everything.”

That may be so, but for a while, Simchuk’s organization ran up hundreds of thousands of dollars in bogus bills for booze, wine and champagne on the credit cards of bedazzled male tourists, prosecutors charge. All together, the B-Girls, who received 20 percent commissions for bringing in customers, ripped off about 90 patrons, mostly tourists or businessmen with telltale signs of wealth, such as expensive watches or shoes, authorities say.

One victim from Philadelphia, who was approached by two B-Girls at the swank Delano Hotel, complained he was taken for $43,000 at Caviar Beach on Washington Avenue. His American Express bill included dozens of charges for booze. Another victim was charged $5,000 for a bottle of champagne.

Authorities say the case is a sign of the mob from the former Soviet Union reaching deeper into South Florida to commit “any type of fraud you can think of,” said Brodsky, in charge of the Miami FBI’s organized crime squad. Their stocks in trade: credit card fraud, cybercrime, human trafficking, prostitution, drugs, extortion and arms smuggling.

Brodsky said the Eastern European mob is very different from La Cosa Nostra, known for its “made men,” “wise guys,” and “good fellas.”

He held up Simchuk, the alleged leader in the B-Girl case, as a classic example. Simchuk, 44, is accused of smuggling sexy B-Girls from his Baltic State clubs back home to work in private, leased venues along Washington Avenue. Brodsky said Simchuk works for a “thief in law” in his homeland who acts like a “general,” controls underworld enterprises, and resolves disputes, including using threats and violence.

A thief-in-law, known as a “Vor" in Russian, arose in Stalin’s forced labor camps of political prisoners and criminals. The term now refers to a high-ranking member of a criminal syndicate from Russia or the former Soviet Union.

“The challenge [to law enforcement] is the hierarchy is overseas and has greater access to political protection,” Brodsky said.

According to court records, Simchuk and five other Eastern European men operated the alleged racket for a year at Caviar Bar, 643 Washington Ave.; Stars Lounge, 643 Washington Ave.; Nowhere Bar, 653 Washington Ave.; Steel Toast, 758 Washington Ave.; Tangia Club, 841 Washington Ave.; and Club Moreno, 1341 Washington Ave.

Today, Caviar, Stars and Tangia are not open for business. Steele Toast plans to reopen as an actual nightclub, Havana Nights, this weekend. Club Moreno is a scooter shop.

As for Nowhere Bar, it is still operating. General manager Vladislav Salaridze said his business never conducted illegal activity. “No, no, no, we are a legitimate business. We do bar mitzvahs, weddings, parties for celebrities and comedy shows," he said. “But we always were getting mixed up with Caviar [Bar] because we both have Russian owners."

According to court records, Simchuk and the others leased the private clubs, obtained credit-card merchant accounts, flew in B-Girls from Eastern Europe or the Baltic States with 90-day visas, rented apartments for them, and sent them out to hotels like the Delano, Clevelander and others along Ocean Drive to seduce male visitors into coming to their private clubs.


An FBI agent who led the investigation said they went “hunting” in pairs, worked between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., lured “wealthy males” back to the clubs and ordered multiple bottles of booze without telling the victims the price.

“The clubs are not open to the public, and operate solely as a front for fraud,” FBI agent Alexander V. Tiguy wrote in an April affidavit.

The goal was to jack up the bills, and squeeze the customers to sign off on their credit card slips -- no easy task.

“Some victims are so intoxicated by the drinks forced upon them by the B-Girls that they cannot stand and are not competent enough to sign credit card receipts,” Tiguy wrote in the affidavit. “Those victims are propped up by the B-Girls long enough to obtain signatures.”

In most instances, the bartender or manager explained to the victims that they agreed to purchase the alcohol, that the bar had surveillance video of them, and demanded that they pay or the police would be called to arrest them.

On several occasions, the bouncer or Miami Beach police officers would inform the victim about the state’s Innkeeper Law, which requires patrons disputing a charge to challenge the bill with their credit card company -- or risk getting arrested.

At several of the clubs, an undercover Miami Beach police officer was working as the bouncer to obtain evidence for the investigation.

Daniels, the magician, said he felt like he had no choice but to pay his bill after he called police and club Tangia’s bouncer told him he would be going to jail. The bouncer was an undercover cop, but he did not know that at the time.

“They had my driver’s license and credit card,” recalled Daniels, 50, who turned to the FBI. “I couldn’t do anything.”

Rabbi gets probation in NJ corruption case

TRENTON, N.J. — The spiritual leader of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States was sentenced Wednesday to two years of unsupervised probation for using a charity he controlled to illegally funnel money to Israel.

Dressed in a black suit and a traditional black hat, 89-year-old Rabbi Saul Kassin appeared frail and confused Tuesday, asking his lawyers to explain to him what was happening and accusing the FBI and the court of unfairly targeting him.

“You did all this to me under almighty God,” Kassin said in a long statement before the judge imposed his sentence. “Aggravation, sorrow, many nights I could not sleep.”

U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano spared Kassin a prison sentence, citing his age, but fined him $36,750, in addition to the nearly $370,000 Kassin agreed to forfeit after he was caught up in New Jersey’s largest-ever corruption bust.

The chief rabbi of Congregation Sharee Zion in Brooklyn, N.Y., Kassin pleaded guilty in March to one count of unauthorized money transmitting. According to the criminal complaint, he had used the Magen Israel Society, a charity he controlled, to deposit thousands of dollars in checks from Solomon Dwek, the son of another New Jersey rabbi. Kassin then issued checks to other organizations at Dwek’s behest, taking a 10 percent commission.

Dwek had become a cooperating witness for the FBI after pleading guilty to a $50 million bank fraud, wearing a wire as he presented the illegal deal to Kassin as part of a federal sting operation dubbed Operation Bid Rig.

Despite pleading guilty and admitting to his role in court documents submitted by his legal team, Kassin absolved himself of guilt Wednesday, citing his lifetime of charitable activities, invoking Torah teachings that guide his life and reading from one of what he said was hundreds of support letters he had received.

That led the judge to advise the rabbi that equivocating on his guilt now could jeopardize his lenient sentence. Kassin could have faced 18 to 24 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

Pisano said Kassin’s old age — not his lifetime of good deeds or service to his community — was the reason he declined to incarcerate the white-bearded rabbi.

“When somebody comes in here and sits where you are sitting, you’re just another citizen,” Pisano said.

But the judge seemed most surprised at a brazen request by Kassin to have the $367,500 he forfeited returned to him.

“I want that money back, to donate it,” Kassin said, his chair quivering slightly as he spoke. “They kept it for two years almost — it’s enough.”

Pisano quickly snubbed that request, saying Kassin bore the blame for any misfortune that befell the beneficiaries of his charity as a result of his knowing participation in an economic crime.

Though Kassin lives in Brooklyn, he appeared before a federal court in New Jersey because the illegal money transfer took place in Deal, N.J., an insular enclave of the Syrian Jewish community where many of New York’s Syrian Jews vacation in the summer. Two other rabbis from Deal were among 46 people arrested in 2009 as part of the federal sting that also ensnared high-level elected officials and public workers.

The ongoing investigation became New Jersey’s largest-ever corruption bust and a ready-made media spectacle. About half of those charged later pleaded guilty.

What Ohel Has Done?

In wake of Jewish Week story, social service agency shared confidential files about abuse case with outsiders.

In the wake of a Jewish Week story questioning the practice of Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services in reporting suspected cases of sexual abuse, the Brooklyn-based social service agency has launched a campaign to clear its name. But while supporters and some former critics of the institution say the effort has proved Ohel acted correctly in the disputed case, others maintain that the promotional effort itself is raising serious ethical, if not legal questions about the agency’s conduct.

The story in question was published in the Feb. 23 issue of The Jewish Week and described a case in which Ohel therapists suspected that a mother was sexually abusing her then 5-year-old son but were instructed by their supervisor not to make a report to the authorities. (The law requires a report to the Administration for Children’s Services even if there is only a “reasonable cause to suspect” that abuse is taking place.)

After the article appeared, Ohel took out a full-page ad in The Jewish Week and another Jewish newspaper discrediting the paper’s sources and asserting that the story was inaccurate and biased.

During the months leading up to publication of the story, Ohel officials refused this newspaper’s repeated requests for comment about its policies on reporting suspected cases of sexual abuse to the authorities. Several sources had told The Jewish Week that, given the agency’s close connections to the fervently Orthodox community, it is reluctant to report such cases for fear of contradicting rabbinic leaders, whose approval they court.

(Indeed, just two weeks ago representatives of the Agudath Israel, a major haredi umbrella group, publicly stated that even mandated reporters should consult a rabbi before making a report.)

Ohel’s rabbinic adviser, Rabbi Dovid Cohen, plays a key role in deciding how the agency should act in situations where the mandates of religious law — which, for example, prohibits mesira (informing to the authorities on fellow Jews) — conflict with those of secular law, which require reporting any reasonable suspicion of abuse to the authorities.

Regarding the particular case of the woman and her young son, Ohel officials had told The Jewish Week they were prohibited from discussing the case, citing confidentiality requirements. But a key element of the recent effort by Ohel to bolster its reputation has been to show confidential patient files related to the case to former critics, raising questions about the agency’s motives and practices.

There are, in effect, two parallel narratives to describe the current Ohel campaign. One is that the organization, widely praised for many of its services, is taking a number of steps to convince the community, including former critics and members of its own board, that its work in dealing with cases of sexual abuse is equally exemplary, and that The Jewish Week article was inaccurate and damaging. The agency cites testimonials, based on reviews of the case by outsiders, that Ohel acted properly in every way.

The other version, voiced by several former and current employees, abuse victim advocates and former clients, is based on the premise that Ohel is more concerned with protecting community members suspected of abuse — and in so doing, preserving the reputation of the community — than it is in protecting vulnerable children. (The child in question ultimately was removed from the mother’s supervision.)

The Jewish Week has learned that the agency offered to show files from the disputed case to some leaders of advocacy groups, apparently seeking endorsement for the agency’s conduct. That has led to the charge that Ohel sought to divide and co-opt members of the advocacy community, in part by implying that it would fund joint programs with those groups that supported the agency’s position.

How could Ohel share files with outsiders after insisting for many months that privacy laws prohibited it from even discussing the mother-child case? Ohel explains the apparent contradiction by noting that the people it approached to review the case were engaged as outside consultants. (It is legal under confidentiality regulations to share files containing protected health information with a consultant if that person has signed an appropriate business associate agreement.)

A Face-To-Face Meeting

More than two months after the Feb. 23 story was published, Ohel CEO David Mandel agreed to an on-the-record interview with The Jewish Week. At a tense but cordial meeting at Ohel headquarters in Borough Park, Mandel, flanked by the agency’s attorney/ quality-control officer and public relations director, sat across the table from this reporter and two Jewish Week editors and patiently made his case. He asserted that The Jewish Week story was inaccurate and that Ohel, highly rated by the city for its foster care and other services, is a well respected and professional organization that scrupulously follows the law in all of its actions.

Mandel explained that to restore its reputation, the agency hired a forensic psychiatrist who specializes in issues related to sexuality and sexual abuse, and his psychologist wife, to review the mother-child case because “the allegations made in the article”… “were completely false.”

A March 10 letter from the consultants, Drs. Richard Krueger and Meg Kaplan, a copy of which was obtained by The Jewish Week, said they had “reviewed the chart and discussed the case” with Ohel’s attorney and absolved the agency of any wrongdoing in the case.

Several critics noted, however, that Krueger and Kaplan were not given access to the mother, her son or anyone else with direct knowledge of the case, including The Jewish Week’s sources. According to those sources, a number of discussions about the case that took place at the time among Ohel staff — and specifically about the mother’s disclosures about her own behavior — were not recorded in any patient charts and, because of this, there exists no written record of them.

When asked whether it is standard practice in a forensic evaluation to review only selected charts and not interview those directly involved in a particular case, Krueger referred The Jewish Week to Ohel.

Asked for comment on this story early last week, the organization’s spokesman, Derek Saker, said Ohel would “follow up in the near future.” On Tuesday, pressed again for a response, Mandel asked that The Jewish Week “delay publication this week and wait for comprehensive factual information that we will provide in the next few days.”

Jewish Week editors, however, concluded that Ohel has had ample time to confirm or deny whether the events described here indeed transpired, and if so, to provide an explanation for them.

Internal Friction Among Abuse Advocates

Among those with whom Ohel shared the case files to get an opinion are members of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children (JBAC), an advocacy organization that has been a central force in the effort to address the issue of child sexual abuse and its cover-up within the Orthodox community.

JBAC’s president, Elliot Pasik, declined to comment on his review and the circumstances under which it was solicited. But The Jewish Week obtained information indicating that without the knowledge or approval of the full JBAC board, Pasik, an attorney specializing in serious personal injury and general commercial litigation, and Rabbi Chaim Wakslak, a clinical psychologist who works with people with disabilities, went to one of Ohel’s offices, where they reviewed selected charts and interviewed some individuals connected to the case; therapists were interviewed in the presence of their supervisors.

After the review, Pasik sought approval from some members of JBAC’s executive and rabbinic committee to issue a statement clearing Ohel of any wrongdoing in the mother-child case and calling for a Jewish Week retraction. This was the first the members had learned of the review and some balked, citing the fact that JBAC’s executive vice president is Asher Lipner, a therapist and former Ohel employee who was directly involved in the mother-child case and spoke on the record to The Jewish Week for its Feb. 23 story.

Others expressed concern that Ohel officials had manipulated Pasik. For example, Rabbi Yosef Blau, mashgiach ruchani (spiritual adviser) of Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, argued that it was highly irregular for Ohel to pick and choose individuals to review the case and withhold certain information. He also cited Pasik’s alleged lack of objectivity and qualifications to conduct a forensic review.

The Jewish Week has learned that, while neither Pasik nor Rabbi Wakslak were compensated for their review, Pasik made it clear to others involved with JBAC of the prospect for future collaboration with and funding from Ohel, based on his conversations with CEO Mandel.

The fact that Pasik may have had an expectation of his organization benefiting from his giving Ohel a positive report and that Ohel controlled the access he had to both documentation and personnel raises red flags among some experts on standard protocol for a forensic review process.

Conflict Of Interest?

Dr. Mary A. Connell, a board-certified clinical and forensic psychologist who has worked for Child Protective Services in Texas, said that typically, for the results of an investigation to have credibility, it is crucial that the investigators be “truly independent,” and without, for example, “expectation of employment or good will” from the agency they are reviewing.

In this case, she said, the expectation of possible funding from Ohel and the fact that Lipner is a member of the JBAC board suggests a conflict of interest.

Similarly, Michael Salamon, the director of the Adult Development Center in Hewlett, L.I., and a psychologist in the Orthodox community, said that “one well-established approach [to conducting an evaluation] would be to hire an outside, unaffiliated group that has the breadth of resources and experience to do a complete and thorough forensic evaluation.”

Even if it were technically legal for Ohel to show the files to handpicked outside individuals, sharing patient information with consultants for the purpose of clearing the agency’s name may be an inappropriate use of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which governs privacy regulations, according to Abner Weintraub, a national authority on HIPPA.

Mary Vandenack, another authority on HIPPA, told The Jewish Week that bringing in a consultant who is not an expert in the specific area or who has an interest in the outcome is unethical and may even constitute fraud if the agency and/or consultant make representations that the consultant is an expert.

Pasik may not have been the only abuse victim advocate approached by Ohel. Mark Meyer Appel, president of The Voice of Justice, said that an Ohel executive board member offered to the show the files to him. But Appel told The Jewish Week he declined to view them, citing a concern that “sensitive files should not be shared indiscriminately with advocates [as it is] a moral breach in governance.”

Ohel CEO Mandel said there was no offer to share the files of the mother-son case with Appel.

In response to a request for comment on the situation, Survivors for Justice, another advocacy organization, called Ohel’s request that JBAC leaders review the agency’s practices “disingenuous” at best.

The group asserted that Ohel should rely on objective experts and law enforcement for review, and “find its way back to its core mission, namely providing quality foster care for Orthodox children.”

Terrifying moment a crazed father threatened to impale his tiny daughter with a Samurai sword

This was the dramatic moment when a crazed motorist staged a tense stand off with cops - by threatening his own daughter with a razor sharp samurai sword.

The horrific scene was captured after Zhang Gang, 34, caused an accident with another car and instead of stopping to exchange details tried to speed off.

But police who were in the area chased the hit and run motorist - finally stopping him 15 minutes later just outside a farmer's market at Yongren country, in Yunan province.

Zhang, who was with his wife Lu and daughter May in the car, refused to surrender and demanded police get out of the way.

Local farmer Lu Yin said: 'I heard the car coming at speed and then slam on the brakes when two police cars blocked the road.

'Then this man leapt out carrying a huge sword and waving what I thought was a doll.

'But then I realised it was a little child. She seemed shocked but then she started crying when she heard her daddy shouting.

'He had the razor sharp sword at her chest the whole time and was shouting 'Let me go or I'll kill her I swear it - I will show no mercy.

'Then he climbed back in the car with the kid and still with the sword at her chest demanded he be allowed to drive off.

But a trained police negotiator was soon on the scene and started speaking to the road rage dad and several of his relatives were also sent over - allowing specially trained officers to get into position and storm the vehicle - freeing the little girl unharmed.

Witness Lu Yin said: 'They were talking to him for an hour to calm him down - but the operation to free the girl was over in seconds.

Weinergate: Rep. Weiner unsure if he's the man in lewd photo sent on Twitter feed, makes dirty jokes

Rep. Anthony Weiner can't say for sure the crotch shot posted online was not of him - and then he brushed off reporters' questions with a stream of dirty jokes.

"I'm sorry I was a little stiff yesterday," the congressman said, apparently bemused by the horde of reporters pushing towards him.

"Maybe it will turn out that this is the point of al Qaeda's sword," he said. "The jokes kind of write themselves."

Weiner tried to clear the air after his testy initial response to questions about why a Blackberry photo of an underwear-clad crotch was posted to his Twitter feed on Friday.

But in a series of interviews and impromptu press conferences larded with double entendres, he only raised more questions and fueled the right-wing bloggers baying for his blood.

He flatly denied that he posted the Blackberry photo of an underwear-clad erection which appeared Friday in his Twitter stream addressed to a 21-year-old college student in Seattle.

But in a head-scratching explanation said he could not say for sure the photo was not of him.

"I can't say with certitude. My system was hacked. Pictures can be manipulated," he told MSNBC Wednesday.

"We don't know," he told the Daily News. "We've asked (a law) firm to look into whether some of my photos could have been taken, they could have been manipulated."

"You would know if this is your underpants," asked the stentorian Wolf Blitzer on CNN, in one of the most surreal TV moments of recent years.
Weiner ducked the question.

"I don't know what photographs are out there in the world of me," he said.

The New York congressman told the Daily News he hasn't asked the Capitol Police to investigate the hack but instead hired a private law firm, Baker & Hostetler, to look into it.

Weiner said he didn't want to "make a federal case" out of it or use national security resources to track down who hacked his Twitter.

"We're treating it as a prank, not treating it as a national security invasion or anything," he told the News.

"I'm not sure it rises - no pun intended - to that level," he told MSNBC, still joking even as the issue seemed to be snowballing rather than dissipating.

The photo was sent Friday over Twitter to Seattle student Gennette Cordova, a fan of the congressman who says she's never met him but once jokingly called him "my boyfriend."

The photo was quickly deleted, but not before right-wing bloggers republished it, suggesting it was proof Weiner - a longtime target for his combative liberalism - was cheating on his wife.

Weiner is married to Huma Abedin, the glamorous aide to Hillary Clinton who was considered the biggest catch in Washington when they married last summer.

Abedin has seen sexual innuendo and misdeeds take a heavy toll on the Clintons over the years.

On CNN, Weiner spoke eloquently about his wife, saying she is mystified by the storm of controversy.

"Hopefully, my marriage survives my first anniversary," he said ruefully.

Of the 198 people Weiner followed on the microblogging site, most are politicos or Twitter celebrities. But a handful are young women, which has fueled the rumors.

Several of those women contacted by the News said Weiner added them to his list after he put out a general call asking his fans who wanted him to follow them to type #WeinerYes.

"It's nothing sketchy or shady," said Victoria Pinter, who Twitters as kittenXpoker.

"He followed me because he was following everyone who did an @ reply with a certain hashtag," she said. "I just feel bad for Rep. Weiner and his wife."

One of the young women being whispered about is actually his sister in law, Weiner said.

Weiner said some people don't seem to understand the freewheeling ethos of Twitter, where "following" someone doesn't mean you know them or even agree with what they say.

"I don't think people should draw suppositions that I know any of these people," Weiner said.

He said he offered to follow any Twitter fans who asked, "and I just clicked and clicked and clicked kind of randomly. I try to look for New Yorkers, but it was fairly random," he said. "So that's where most of the citizens, the citizens that I follow, came from."

Weiner, who is a prolific and savvy user of social media, said he'd been targeted online before.

Hackers tried to get into his Facebook account a few weeks ago, and again Tuesday, he said.

"After I had changed my password, just yesterday I couldn't get in and it turned out that someone was trying to - maybe because of all of the attention - someone was trying to get into my account," Weiner said.

Woman struck dead by No. 6 subway train after passing out and falling on tracks on 77th St. station

Police cordon off entrances at 77th St. Station Wednesday afternoon after a woman was struck and killed by a No. 6 subway train

Woman Faints, Killed by 6 Train: MyFoxNY.com

A woman died after she passed out and fell in front of train at an upper East Side station Wednesday, police said.

The woman fainted on the subway platform at Lexington Ave. and E. 77th St. and tumbled to the tracks just as a rerouted uptown No. 5 train rolled into the station about 3:10 p.m., cops said.

The train hit the woman, described only as being in her 20s, and she died at the scene.

"I was in the train when [she] got hit," said Nicole Katzender, 26, who was about three cars back from the front.

"I felt the noise from the impact of the body," she said.

Another straphanger on the train said the doors didn't open to the humid platform for about 20 minutes.

"It was terrible," said Claudia Ospina, 39. "I was in shock. It was crazy."

An MTA spokesman said local service was still shut down a couple of hours later and all trains were running express between Grand Central and 125th St.

‘I am devastated and disappointed’

Victim in NYPD rape trial speaks out

The fashion exec who accused two NYPD cops of raping her spoke out for the first time yesterday about their shocking acquittal last week.

The woman addressed her heartbreak over the verdict, in a statement released by her lawyers, saying she felt violated a second time during aggressive cross-examination by the lawyers for former Police Officers Kenneth Moreno, 43, and Franklin Mata, 28.

Moreno and Mata still face up to two years behind bars for convictions on official misconduct.

"I know that in a criminal trial, a verdict of not guilty does not necessarily mean the defendants were found innocent, but I am devastated and disappointed by the jury’s decision,” the woman said.

“I have waited 21⁄2 years for closure that will now never come. Hearing that verdict brought me to my knees; it brought me back to my bedroom on that awful night when my world was turned upside down by the actions of two police officers who were sent there to protect, but instead took advantage of their authority and broke the law.

“Everything they say about the difficulties of a rape trial is sadly true. One’s word is not enough in these days of ‘CSI’ and DNA. Even if people believe you, you are tested beyond what any crime victim should have to endure.

“While on the witness stand, the defense attorneys seek to shame and humiliate you for hours, even days, with deeply personal questions about your body, your intimate life and your social life simply because you dare to come forward. How saddening, how utterly disheartening.

“I want people to know I take great comfort and express my thanks in the swift action from Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly to fire Misters Moreno and Mata from service immediately following the verdict.

“Thank you both for making such a strong statement that this city will not tolerate criminal actions by its police officers. Not a single officer in uniform sat behind the defendants when I testified. That speaks volumes. I know there are thousands of real and good New York City police officers who would have acted very differently that night.

“I want to especially thank Coleen Balbert, Edward Tacchi, Randolph Clarke, Dianne Spence and the entire District Attorney’s Office. I cry as I write this because I know they are hurting just like me, and because I know that beyond just doing their jobs, they are real people who care.

“I have spent countless hours over 21⁄2 years with these people, and I am blown away by their dedication to fight for truth and justice. Before the jury went into deliberation, I told Coleen this has been personal for me, and their endless efforts to help me [have] meant the world.

“And even after this shocking ending, I mean that still, I will love them forever. When Ed told me after the verdict, ‘I am saddened for this injustice, and so sorry to you for this failure,’ I lost it. My heart broke.

“What I can only say about Ed, Randolph and Coleen is that they did the best for me, they are the best to me, and to so many others they have touched. What sets them apart, makes them best in class, is their heart. They gave me a voice after a night when I had none.

“To my friends and family, you are the silver lining of this, you keep me going. I am also so amazed and touched by the thousands of people who have expressed their outrage at what happened to me. How amazing are the people of New York City, and all over the country, to speak up in my honor.

“Thank you so much. I am overwhelmed by your support. I want you to know that if I could, I would shake your hand, I would hug you, and I hear you. For me, public opinion will be the ultimate verdict."

Spring Valley taxi driver charged with raping passenger

SPRING VALLEY — A taxi driver has been charged with raping a female passenger he picked up as a paying customer on Sunday morning in the village.

Milton Gustavo Tenesaca-Tenesaca, 23, was charged with first-degree rape, a felony. He is being held in the county jail in New City with bail set at $250,000.

Tenesaca-Tenesaca is accused of sexually attacking a 26-year-old woman in the cab after stopping at 3:30 a.m. near 235 N. Main St., police said.

He told the investigating officers that the woman consented to having sex, Detective Sgt. James Noble of the Spring Valley police said Tuesday.

The woman told police she didn't know Tenesaca-Tenesaca and accused him of sexually attacking her after getting into the back seat of the cab, Noble said.

The woman told officers that Tenesaca-Tenesaca then let her leave the cab and she went straight to the Police Department, Noble said.

A patrol officer stopped an America Latina cab a short time later, Noble said.

The woman was brought to the scene and identified Tenesaca-Tenesaca, he said.

A message left Tuesday for the cab company owner or manager was not returned.

Police were waiting for a report from federal immigration officials on Tenesaca-Tenesaca's status in the United States, Noble said. He gave the police an address of 15 Crispus Attucks Road.

Iran minister accused of planning Argentina Jewish center bombing told to leave Bolivia

Bolivia sends letter of apology to Argentina for inviting Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who is accused by Argentina of planning the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center that killed 85.

Bolivia said on Tuesday it had taken steps to ensure that Iran's defense minister, who is accused by Argentina of planning the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center that killed 85 people, leaves Bolivia immediately.

The statement came in a letter from Bolivia's foreign minister to his counterpart in Argentina, which said the Iranian minister, Ahmad Vahidi, was in Bolivia at the invitation of the country's Defense Ministry.

In the letter Bolivia apologized for the invitation, which it called "a grave incident", and assured Argentina that Vahidi would not be in the country for long.

"As a result of this lamentable situation ... the government of Bolivia has taken the corresponding provisions to see to it that Ahmad Vahidi immediately leaves Bolivian territory," said the letter, which was released in Buenos Aires by the Argentine government.

Sources in Bolivia's government, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Vahidi left Bolivia late on Tuesday.

Vahidi is among the senior Iranian officials accused by Argentine prosecutors of being behind the attack that leveled the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires. Iran denies any links to the bombing.

"Unfortunately (the Bolivian Defense Ministry) did not know about the background of the case," the letter said. Nor did the ministry coordinate the invitation with the rest of Bolivia's government, it said.

The Jewish communities in both Argentina and Bolivia had protested the visit, calling it a provocation.

Vahidi enjoys diplomatic immunity, which complicates efforts to bring him to trial although in 2007 Interpol notified law enforcement bodies in other countries of an Argentine arrest warrant against him.

Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales, has close ties with Argentine leader Cristina Fernandez, who last year proposed that a third country be nominated by Tehran to host the trial of those accused of being involved in the bombing.

Iran rejected the idea, saying none of its citizens were involved. Iran's state news agency IRNA said Vahidi had visited Mauritania and held talks with the African state's president before traveling to Bolivia.

Guillermo Borges, the AMIA's current president, called Vahidi's visit to Bolivia "a provocation."

The letter said that Bolivia hopes the incident will not affect the "excellent"diplomatic relationship between it and Argentina.