Dr. Orlando Llorente, Miami plastic surgeon waterboarded and beat mistress over Facebook post

MIAMI - A South Florida plastic surgeon accused of torturing and trying to kill his former girlfriend faced a judge Wednesday.

Dr. Orlando Llorente was charged with kidnapping and attempted murder. Police said his ex-girlfriend claims the suspect, who is married, beat and tortured her April 21 after he confronted her about a Facebook posting.

Llorente, a board-certified plastic surgeon in private practice, had previously been affiliated with Kendall Regional Medical Center. He has since been suspended.

Miami Police spokeswoman Kenia Reyes described the violent confrontation between Llorente and his ex-girlfriend, which took place in a Brickell high-rise. "What he did was grab her hair, stick her [head] into the toilet, and afterwards into the tub, and then shoved a piece of rag down her mouth, causing her to almost lose consciousness," she said.

Police said the victim claims Llorente held her down, face up in the bathtub for hours while she was being water-boarded. "Now, this torturing lasted somewhere between 12 and 16 hours," Reyes said.

In bond court, Llorente's lawyer disputed the victim's account. "I don't see anything within the narrative that suggests that Dr. Llorente prevented the alleged victim from leaving, either by threat or force or by implication," said Marcos Beating during the hearing.

Authorities said Llorente let the victim go if she promised not to say anything about her ordeal. Later that night, police said, they were at a Pinecrest CVS pharmacy, where he coached her on what to say about her injuries. According to the police report, Llorente's ex-girlfriend put her iPhone on record mode to capture Llorente coaching her. When he realized she was recording him, police said, he became violent again, smashing her phone to pieces and pushing her to the ground. The victim was eventually able to escape.

Residents who live near the home Llorente apparently shares with his wife said they are not necessarily surprised by the alleged events. "It's terrible," said a male neighbor. "This guy's a surgeon? Who would want him doing surgery ... when he has no integrity at all?"

A woman who also lives in Llorente's neighborhood echoed that sentiment. "People actually count on him to take care of their lives while under any type of anesthesia, and he's over here torturing someone else," she said. "That is very scary. You just don't know who to trust anymore."

Llorente is currently being held without bond.

WSVN-TV -

Seattle - Torah Day School teacher molested girls in front of class

A Seattle grade school teacher accused of sexually assaulting two girls in front of other students has been charged with child molestation.

Torah Day School teacher Jordan E. Murray was teaching first- and second-graders at the private religious school in South Seattle late last month when he is alleged to have groped the girls. Murray has since been fired.

Known to students as Rabbi Yaakov Murray, the father of three is alleged to have groped girl students after lifting them onto his lap.

Writing the court, King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Carol Spoor noted Murray recently arrived in Washington. Murray could face a 25-year minimum term in prison if convicted as charged.

“The defendant is a clear danger to children given the circumstances of this crime,” Spoor told the court. “He abused his position of trust as a firs-t and second-grade teacher, secretly molesting these girls in class in front of others.”

Seattle police responded to the South Ferdinand Street school after they were notified of the allegations on April 23.

Speaking with investigators, a 6-year-old girl said Murray put her on his lap and shoved his hands down her pants while he was seated behind his desk, Seattle Detective Michael Moore told the court. The girl had approached Murray to show him her school work.

As he did so, Murray stared at the girls school work as though he was reading it, Moore continued. The detective added that the rest of the first-grade class was unaware Murray was groping the child.

Moore went on to claim Murray molested the girl behind his desk on several other occasions. The girl’s family notified authorities after she reported the apparent abuse.

A 7-year-old girl made similar allegations against Murray, claiming he molested her several times in recent weeks, Moore continued. Like the other girl, she said Murray molested her behind his desk in the classroom.

A third girl said Murray often hugged her and lifted her onto his lap at his desk at his desk. He is not alleged to have molested that girl, though investigators suggest he touched the girl over her clothing.

Murray declined to speak with investigators, according to charging papers.

Investigators note Murray is not actually an ordained rabbi; students at the school called him by that title out of respect. He has no criminal history.

Murray has been charged with four counts of first-degree child molestation. He was briefly jailed on May 3 but was released after posting bond on $100,000 bail.

 

Seattlepi

Rockland County - 10,500 ultra-orthodox Jewish men protest against the Internet

POMONA - More than 10,500 ultra-orthodox Jewish men turned out last night at the Rockland Boulders Stadium in Pomona to protest the Internet.

The event was held with the goal of raising awareness about the dangers of using the Internet, especially for children and young adults who can be exposed to pornography and other sites with illicit content.

Organizers say this is a follow-up to a rally in Queens last May where 60,000 members of the ultra-orthodox community flooded Citi Field and Arthur Ashe stadium to mobilize against the Internet. "Many parts of the Internet are dangerous, for children and adults. And we have to be aware of the dangers of the Internet, destroying families, destroying people, destroying relationships," says Menachem Wainrev.

Keeping with the orthodox tradition of separating the sexes, the rallies have been for men-only.

Curtis Sliwa scammed ex to give child support to mistress

The lovebirds were vultures — or so says an ex-wife.

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and former City Councilwoman Melinda Katz scammed Sliwa’s ex-wife out of more than $400,000 in a bizarre child-support payment scheme, a $1.4 million lawsuit charges.

Mary Sliwa says the famous anti-crime activist used their marital assets to make inflated support payments to Katz, who had two children by in vitro fertilization — with pal Sliwa as her sperm donor.

The angry ex-wife says Sliwa also cheated on her with Katz, who’s now a leading contender for Queens borough president. Mary Sliwa says her ex made the bloated child support payments because he was planning to divorce her and shack up with Katz.

“Curtis Sliwa is an inveterate, world-class liar,” says the suit, which lists the dates and locations of numerous alleged trysts between the co-defendants.

“This is a sad, frivolous lawsuit,” said Nathan Smith, spokesman for Katz’s campaign. “Unfortunately, it is an attempt to use a political campaign and false innuendo as leverage to publicly rehash a long ago settled divorce.”

Efforts to reach Sliwa and Katz were unsuccessful Thursday.

Katz received $96,000 a year tax free for several years starting in 2008, says the lawsuit against Sliwa, 59, and the Queens politician, 47.

Now Mary Sliwa, 59, and the special-needs child she had with the red beret-wearing media personality are that much the poorer, according to the suit, which demands $405,000 back, plus interest and $1 million in damages.

She says when Katz had her first in vitro baby in 2008, Sliwa denied any intimate relationship with her and said his sperm had been “frozen” years before.

“During the next several months, the co-defendants conspired … to drain marital assets so Curtis Sliwa could leave plaintiff in due course, join his mistress, Melinda Katz, and have a ‘nest egg’ of marital assets,” the suit states. The suit also says Sliwa convinced his wife “to use significant marital assets” to pay support for the Katz child.

Mary Sliwa says her husband was required to pay no more than $1,700 a month to Katz, plus potential discretionary fees assessed by the court. But Sliwa paid $8,000, plus $1,150 to provide “his mistress” with a life insurance policy, according to the suit. That amounted to more than half of his income, according to the astonishing litigation.

Sliwa had a second in vitro child with Katz in 2011. He and Mary Sliwa divorced in 2012 and he now lives with Katz and their two children in Forest Hills.

Mary Sliwa says she believed her then-husband and agreed to the payments because she “wanted to keep the marriage together ... trusted him,” and thought the amounts were legitimate. Sliwa was previously married to Lisa Evers, a FOX 5 News reporter.

Katz’s campaign website has this to say about her personal life: “Melinda lives with her partner, radio personality and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, and their two children, Carter and Hunter. They are raising their children in the same Forest Hills house Melinda grew up in.”

By Barbara Ross AND Daniel Beekman / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Fatal Miami-Dade police drug bust shootout recorded by alleged perps’ cameras

Surveillance cameras outside a drug den captured a fatal shoot-out between police and suspected drug dealers with footage that looked eerily like something from a Quentin Tarantino movie.

The video starts with one suspected dealer, Gerardo Delgado, leaving the house. He pauses for a couple of moments on the porch while smoking a cigarette and then getting into a blacked out BMW sitting in the driveway.

No sooner has he closed the door of his vehicle than an unmarked Miami-Dade police car appears.

One detective, John Saavedra, walks up to the front door.

At that moment, a second man emerges from the house. Luis Estevanell, 60, points his hand to the sky, then lunges toward the street, drawing detectives away from the BMW.

As three cops surround Estevanell they are momentarily caught off guard by Delgado emerging from his car with a gun in his hand.

Suddenly gunfire erupts.

Saavedra returns fire, but then stumbles off screen after taking three shots to his gut.

Another detective Jorge Milan backs up toward the street off camera.

Delgado, wounded and hopping in pain, takes cover behind a tree in the circular driveway of the house in Coral Way, but continues firing his weapon toward the officers.


Through the tree branches, a bullet strikes him in the head. His gun flies out of his hand, he falls to the ground mortally wounded.

As Delgado writhes on the ground, another detective leads Estevanell to the street to be handcuffed.

Paramedics arrive and rush Saavedra to the hospital. Delgado dies at the scene.

In court Thursday, at an extended bail hearing for Estevanell, prosecutors played the video of the scene that unfolded in front of the West Miami-Dade home.

Police later found 80 pounds of marijuana inside the house, reports The Miami Herald.

Estevanell has been charged with second-degree felony murder, marijuana trafficking and cocaine possession. He is being held without bond

In Florida, anyone who commits a felony in which a death occurs - in this case, Delgado’s demise - can be held responsible for murder.

Detectives, acting on a tip, had placed the house under surveillance a few weeks before.

They had gone to the house on July 31, 2012 for a 'knock and talk' to see if they could get consent to search the property, Miami-Dade homicide Detective James Hatzis testified Thursday.

While not in patrol uniforms, the detectives wore vests printed with the word 'police,' and had badges and police radios.

Miami-Dade Det. John Saavedra, who suffered gunshot wounds to his abdomen hasn't returned to work and is still recovering from his injuries.

Jerusalem - Haredi couple allegedly dismembers man's ex-wife

The remand hearing of a Jerusalem couple suspected in the murder of the man's ex-wife revealed the victim was dismembered and put in a tub, with the alleged intention of soaking it in chemicals.

In the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Friday the police representative claimed suspect Zeev Gorlik, a police volunteer and chemical plant employee, tried to tamper with the evidence and dispose of the body.

"That's the easier part of the whole story," the police officer said.

According to suspicions, Gorlik murdered his former wife Iris Gorlik Vasiliev, 39, in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood in Jerusalem with the aid of his current wife Olga, who searched online for the chemicals necessary to dissolve the remains.

"This is a premeditated and planned murder by the two suspects," the police representative accused. "The evidence we have proves it unequivocally."

But Gorlik's attorneys claimed he was acting in self-defense after his former wife attacked him with a knife during a dispute.

"Right from the start he said a harsh feud developed between them at home, in the course of which she tried to stab him," they said.

"She even stabbed him once. During the struggle he used the same knife and caused her death."

The police representative dismissed the self-defense claim and argued that Gorlik has changed his version as to the course of events.

The judge praised the police's "careful and ordered work" and extended the Gorlik couple's remand by an additional nine days.

The victim's mother described the two's relationship as good. "In Lag Ba'Omer they celebrated together with the kids," she said, but added that "lately they argued about alimony,"

The victim and her former husband had two children, and she was raising a third with her current husband, who alerted the police to her absence on April 30.

Police officers arrived at Zeev Gorlik's apartment and found it locked. After a while, they noticed the couple leaving the apartment with their two children, aged two and four.

Searching the apartment, police officers discovered Iris' mutilated body in the bathtub and arrested the couple.

NY - Wrong Kidney Removed From Patient At Mount Sinai Medical Center

A surgeon at Mount Sinai Medical Center, one of New York City’s most renowned hospitals, has been relieved from his clinical and administrative duties after removing the wrong kidney from a patient, hospital officials said Thursday.

The patient, a 76-year-old male, was on dialysis with two failed and diseased kidneys when the wrong one was removed, said Sinai spokeswoman Dorie Klissas. Doctors subsequently removed the second failed kidney and the patient is doing well, she said.

“This event should never have occurred at Mount Sinai,” said Klissas. “We apologized to the patient, and we will do all we can to ensure that something like this never happens again.”

Klissas, who said hospital officials had consulted with the patient Thursday, would not say when the incident occurred. She also would not name the surgeon, citing hospital policy not to comment on personnel issues.

The patient, she said, told hospital officials the surgeon helped him overcome bladder cancer and that despite the error he had “enormous faith in the doctor.”

Wrong side surgeries do occur at hospitals throughout the country — and many facilities take efforts to “mistake proof” operating rooms. In July 2008, a surgeon at a Minneapolis hospital who removed the wrong kidney from a cancer patient said he was distracted by beeper calls and other patients when he made a mistake on the patient’s chart, a state investigation there found.

The 12-story hospital, which has nearly 1,200 beds, occupies four square blocks on the city’s Upper East Side and was founded in downtown Manhattan in 1852.

Church of Scotland Report Angers Jewish Community

Israel's ambassador to the U.K. has condemned a report by the Church of Scotland that questioned the divine right of Jews to the land of Israel.

Daniel Taub says the document "negates and belittles the deeply held Jewish attachment to the land of Israel in a way which is truly hurtful."

The 10-page discussion paper says that "promises about the land of Israel were never intended to be taken literally" and that the Bible should not be used to settle conflicts over land. It was due to be debated at the church's General Assembly later this month.

The church stressed that it does not deny Israel's right to exist, but conceded Thursday the report has led to misunderstanding of its position and that some parts needed to be rewritten.

Rome's Jewish leader forced to pay Nazi war criminal's legal costs

The leader of Rome's Jewish community has launched a stinging attack on Italy's judicial system after he was forced to pay the legal costs of a Nazi war criminal who unsuccessfully sued him.

Riccardo Pacifici said he would complain to the Italian minister of justice after he was handed a bill for €316 (£267) to cover administrative costs from a trial involving Erich Priebke, a former SS officer who was given a life sentence in 1998 for massacring Italians during the second world war.

Priebke, 99, who is living under house arrest in Rome, sued Pacifici for attempted kidnapping in 1996 after a courtroom scuffle during his trial. He lost despite two appeals, but has avoided the €316 bill for administrative costs because he is officially listed as having no assets or income. Under a quirk of Italian law, the bill was then sent to Pacifici.

Despite the relatively small amount, Pacifici – who campaigns against anti-semitism in Italy – said it was ridiculous that he was being asked to bail out a convicted Nazi war criminal. "I believe it is absurd that the president of the Jewish community in Rome should pay legal costs for a Nazi who is guilty of one of the most tragic massacres of the 20th century," he said.

Priebke was convicted of taking part in the 1944 massacre of 335 Italian civilians in Rome's Ardeatine caves, staged in reprisal for the killing of Germans. After the war, Priebke fled to Argentina and lived there for 50 years before being extradited.

In court, he claimed he was just following orders.

Since being placed under house arrest in Rome, Priebke was in the habit of suing people, said Pacifici, hoping to win payouts, knowing he would never have to pay if he lost. Pacifici likened him to a poker player "who can raise the stakes as much as he wants because he will never pay".

A spokesman for the Jewish community said: "Not only did Pacifici have to pay his own legal costs in a case he won because Priebke has no income, but now he gets this extra bill."

Ultra-Orthodox teens clash with Women of the Wall at holy site

Haredi worshippers clashed with police in Jerusalem's Old City early Friday in the wake of the court authorization for the Women of the Wall to pray at the Jewish holy site.

Thousands of female haredi worshipers arrived at the site, heeding the call of community leaders rabbis Ovadia Yosef and Aharon Leib Shteinman who entreated female Ulpan students to hold a mass prayer at the Western Wall on Friday in an attempt to push aside the Women of Wall prayer set for the same time. However, the rabbis stressed there is no need to act provocatively or violently.

A mass brawl erupted at the site at around 6:30 am, during which garbage, water, coffee and various objects were flung at dozens of Women of the Wall and police forming a human barrier between the female group and the ultra-Orthodox. Three yeshiva students were detained during the clashes. Two police officers were injured lightly.

The protest comes in response to a Jerusalem District Court ruling last month, whereby the Women of the Wall may conduct their pluralistic customs in the holy site.

Knesset members Miri Regev (Likud ) and Tamar Zandberg (Meretz ) arrived on the scene. Zandberg described the scenes as "tumultuous and exciting," saying those objecting to the female group's right to pray at the site have shown themselves to be seeking antagonism at any cost.

Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Isaac Pindar (United Torah Judaism) branded Women of the Wall "the women of provocation." Pindar told Ynet the thousands of haredi women who came this morning to hold a mass prayer nearby were "the true women of the wall."

Reform Movement CEO Rabbi Gilad Kariv, who also arrived at the site, said the leaders of the haredi public "desecrated the sanctity" of the Western Wall by calling on ultra-Orthodox to confront the Women of the Wall.

The Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovich said "these pictures hurt the eye. The Jewish Torah should unify and I ask the Lord above to give everyone the wisdom to overcome the controversy."

He added a compromise regarding the praying sectors at the site was achieved through a Supreme Court ruling over a decade ago, but "a small group nevertheless decided to start the argument all over."

The riot again brings to the fore the issue of religion’s role – and the authority wielded by religious authorities associated with religious practice – in the modern State of Israel. In addition to being portrayed as the epicenter of Jewish prayer, the Western Wall is simultaneously a holy site and a site used for ceremonies such as soldiers’ swearing-in ceremonies and other national activities.

Until now, the site has been run in the manner of an Orthodox synagogue, with a high partition separating men’s and women’s prayer areas. Women coming to attend a bar mitzvah (a coming-of-age ceremony for boys at age 13) have had to climb up on chairs to peek over the partition in order to be part of the festivities.

Women of the Wall's Catherine Leff, 17, whose father is a Conservative rabbi, said the events actually strengthened the group and encouraged the members to sing and pray even louder. She said that at some point the haredim began to spit at the women until police cleared them from the area. According to Leff, the bus which transported the Women of the Wall out of compound was pelted with huge stones, but no one was injured.

Students enrolled in the Reform Movement's pre-military academy were also on hand to support the Women of the Wall. "We arrived from Tel Aviv to show our support," one of them said. "It is also a lesson in democracy, as there is no law that forbids women from praying in this manner."

During the prayer, a woman approached the yeshiva students and yelled out "Israel's chief rabbi will be a woman." She was immediately removed from the area by police.

Yaakov, a 21-year-old haredi, said, "What these women are doing is disgraceful and against the Torah. We will continue to fight them. A woman draped in a tallit (prayer shawl) is ridiculous. Jews do not act this way. I am willing to get arrested. Some things justify a violent reaction."

 

NJ - Father Testifies, Says Brought Charges To Secular Court After Dissatisfaction How Rabbis Handled Kolko Case

NJ - A former yeshiva teacher is on trial in New Jersey on charges he sexually abused a socially awkward boy whose family members, prosecutors say, were ostracized by their Orthodox Jewish community for taking the allegations to civil authorities.

Rabbi Yosef Kolko, 39, met the boy in 2007 at religious school-run summer camp in Lakewood where he was a counselor. The boy was 11 at the time, and authorities say abuse continued until early 2009.

Kolko has denied the charges, which include sexual assault and child endangerment.

The boy’s father, a rabbi, testified Thursday that during a car ride back from his son’s therapist office, the boy said he had been sexually abused.

The next morning, the father said, he called Kolko. The two met and the father told Kolko he needed to attend therapy and stop working with children. The father wanted to bring the matter to a group of rabbis who had “experience dealing with these issues,” he said, and did not intend to make the allegations public. The father recorded the conversation at his wife’s urging.

Kolko did not dispute the allegations, the father said. At one point Kolko told the father he had nothing to say to him, which the father took as an admission as guilt, something Kolko’s lawyer disputed.

Later, the father and Kolko went to the home of a prominent Lakewood rabbi, where the father said Kolko was contrite and looked “close to tears.” The father said the rabbi took the allegations seriously.

The Associated Press generally does not identify accusers in sex crime cases and is not naming the father to protect the son’s identity.

The boy’s father wanted to bring the matter to a rabbinical court. After a few months he was unsatisfied with how the case was being handled and that Kolko was not following his recommendations and still teaching. After hearing Kolko was planning to return to the summer camp, the father called the head of the camp and Kolko, who told him to talk to a Brooklyn rabbi.

“I was more concerned that he was still at his jobs,” the father said. “And I felt that children are being endangered.”

In July 2009, the father decided to bring the case to Ocean County prosecutors. He said that if the allegations had been dealt with appropriately through rabbinical channels, he probably would not have gone to the police.

“Going to law enforcement is not, at this time, common within the Orthodox Jewish community. Even when it’s necessary it’s considered unusual,” the father testified. “Particularly with some people who might believe that the alleged molester is innocent would give the person going to law enforcement a very hard time.’

Prosecutors said the family was ostracized by the Orthodox Jewish community.

A flier was circulated in Lakewood, a community with a large Orthodox Jewish community, saying the boy’s father had made a mockery of the Torah and committed a “terrible deed” by taking the case to state prosecutors, the Asbury Park Press reported.

The family has since moved to Michigan.

The boy’s former therapist also testified Thursday, saying the boy told her in late 2008 he no longer needed help with his social skills because he had made a new friend, Rabbi Kolko.

“He’s my best friend. He’s the only one who understands me,” Dr. Tsipora Koslowitz recounted the boy telling her.

The boy took the witness stand Wednesday on the first day of the trial, testifying how he wanted to remain close to Kolko, even though his actions made him uncomfortable, because Kolko was his friend and he had no friends in school or camp.

The boy described a series of encounters with the rabbi, who would pick him up in his car, including molestation and oral sex and occurring in such locations as an empty classroom, a storage room, Kolko’s car and the basement of a synagogue, the newspaper reported.

Williamsburg - Not a pleasant ride home

Williamsburg - Critics charge city’s Broadway Triangle's two new prIvate apartment buildings being unfairly filled with Hasidic families

A new fight is erupting over a plan to develop private land at Williamsburg's Broadway Triangle, with critics citing two new buildings allegedly filled with Hasidic families.

Last year, a federal judge blocked the city's controversial plan to build housing on the 31-acre spot, finding it illegally favored Hasidim over blacks and Latinos.

But the injunction halting work at the site only appeared to apply to the 20% of city owned land in the area.

Meanwhile, private developers are building apartment buildings at the politically-charged site.

Two of those projects--70 Union Ave. and 246 Lynch St.--have been filled with Hasidim, critics charge.

"There were those who said that we were only speculating about what would happen with the city's rezoning but this is just proof that unless further action is taken this is going to happen over and over again," said Marty Needelman, a lawyer for the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition.

The group sent Hispanic and African American volunteers to apply for apartments at the two loications - and they were turned away, told there were no applications.

The group charges the Bloomberg administration’s controversial zoning plan has allowed the building owners to cater to the dramatically-expanding Hasidic community.

"We want a rezoning that serves the entire community and does not continue patterns of racial segregation that the city has promoted and allowed," Needelman said.

In 2009, the Bloomberg administration tapped Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council and the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg to build about 1,800 apartments on the mostly desolate stretch near the Bedford Stuyvesant border.

Those two nonprofits have close ties to scandal-scarred Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who made the Broadway Triangle a pet project.

Lopez has long maintained close ties to a large branch of the Williamsburg’s Hasidic community, a group that has staunchly supported him.

Needelman and other opponents vehemently objected that the plan for large apartments in low-rise buildings, and a special preference for residents of Williamsburg and Greenpoint that didn't include nearby Bedford Stuyvesant, illegally favored Hasidic residents who often have large families and can't use elevators on the Sabbath.

In response, they suggested the city allow buildings higher than seven stories, where Jews could live on the lower floors.

But city officials have also dismissed the discrimination charges, saying all they did is change zoning rules to allow low-rise apartment buildings, just as they've done in other neighborhoods across the outer boroughs.

"The allegations about the City's plan are wildly off-base,” said Law Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Thomas. “The proposed development plan will help meet the community's affordable housing needs while preserving the neighborhood's mid-rise physical scale.”

“If private landlords are acting in a discriminatory manner, as is alleged, that is not to be tolerated, and concerned citizens should make a report to the authorities responsible for enforcing laws against discrimination."

By Reuven Blau / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

NY - Man accused of abusing 2nd boy in Jewish center

NY - A 64-year-old Willowbrook man is now accused of molesting a second young boy inside a Jewish center in Meiers Corners, prosecutors said.

Claude Neufeld abused the boy four times between Dec. 1, 2009, and Dec. 1, 2010, inside Chabad Lubavitch of Staten Island, according to court papers and a law enforcement source. The boy was 8 and 9 years old when the alleged incidents occurred.

Neufeld touched the boy's genitals over his clothes, said court papers.

In October, Neufeld was charged with molesting a different boy 10 times inside the center between Jan. 14, 2011, and Sept. 21 of last year.

Court documents said Neufeld also touched that boy's genitals over his clothes. That victim was 8, said authorities.

A law enforcement source said those incidents occurred in an upstairs room in the two-story building, at 289 Harold St.

Neufeld was an occasional congregant at the center, a place of prayer, reflection and learning, the source said.

Neufeld's initial arrest in October came after that alleged victim informed his parents of the incidents. They told a rabbi at the center who advised them to contact police, the source said.

The suspect's latest arrest on Tuesday resulted from a continuing probe, said the source.

Neufeld was arraigned in Stapleton Criminal Court on four felony counts of first-degree sexual abuse and a misdemeanor count of endangering a child's welfare, said a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan.

He was previously charged in October with a felony count of second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and misdemeanor counts of endangering a child's welfare and criminal weapon possession. The weapon charge stems from guns police allegedly found in Neufeld's home. That case is pending in Stapleton Criminal Court.

Attempts to obtain Neufeld's telephone number were unsuccessful.

A telephone message left Thursday at Chabad Lubavitch was not immediate returned.

 

 

 

 

Silive

Rabbi recruits seminary girls to protest non-Orthodox worship at Western Wall

Thousands of girls from ultra-Orthodox seminaries in Jerusalem are expected to protest at the Western Wall on Friday, in response to a court ruling permitting the Women of the Wall prayer group to hold non-Orthodox services in the central plaza of the holy site.

Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, the head of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, has instructed the principals of girls’ seminaries in the Jerusalem area to send their students to conduct prayer services at the Western Wall on Friday morning, the first day of the Hebrew month of Sivan. The thousands of ultra-Orthodox girls are expected to face a few dozen members of the Women of the Wall group, who hold non-Orthodox Rosh Chodesh prayer services at the Kotel on the first day of every Hebrew month.

The prayer service was planned following consultations with Kotel Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz and Knesset members from United Torah Judaism. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is also calling for women and seminary girls to pray at the Western Wall on Friday morning, according to the ultra-Orthodox website Behadrei Hadarim.

Rabbi Sthteinman has made it clear that the ultra-Orthodox worshippers are not to resort to violence.

Friday's protest is unique in that ultra-Orthodox leaders rarely call on women to participate in public struggles. It is even more unusual for female students to be summoned to a protest.

The seminary girls' prayer service will be held at the same time that the Women of the Wall group is planning to hold its own, special service at the Kotel. The Women of the Wall intend to hold a celebratory service in honor of the recent Jerusalem District Court ruling permitting them to pray in the manner they choose in the women’s section of the Wall's central plaza. This will be the first time since the group's founding 24 years ago that its members will officially and legally be permitted to wrap themselves in prayer shawls and tefillin.

A delegation of American women, all participants in Otzma, a program for young Jewish leadership, will joining the Women of the Wall Friday morning at their monthly prayer services as a sign of solidarity.

Otzma issued a statement saying all six of its participants “are attending to show their support for religious equality and egalitarianism – which are basic freedoms in the United States.”

Otzma is the flagship young leadership program of Masa, a joint venture of the government of Israel and the Jewish Agency.

Joining the protestors against Women of the Wall is another new organization, founded just several weeks ago by a group of Orthodox woman, called Women for the Wall. The group defines its mission as “making prayer at the Kotel a more pleasant experience for everyone, while maintaining an atmosphere of sanctity (Kedusha) and respect for Jewish tradition.”

In previous months, women have routinely been arrested for wearing prayer shawls and tefillin at the Kotel. But police have announced that they will not interfere with the women's prayer customs, in accordance with the ruling of Judge Moshe Sobel.

Police are expected to call up reinforcements in order to handle what is already a complex situation. This month, the Rosh Chodesh service falls on a Friday, when Muslims traditionally congregate on the Temple Mount. Just Tuesday, the Temple Mount was the site of violent riots, when 200 Jews were permitted to enter the holy site to pray in honor of Jerusalem Day.

Naftali Bennett, the minister for religious services, has called on all sides to “lower the flames.” Following a meeting between Bennett and leaders of Women of the Wall earlier this week, the group agreed not to arrive at the Kotel carrying Torah scrolls. The controversial practice is legal under Judge Sobel’s ruling, but women are nevertheless forbidden by Rabbi Rabinowitz from bringing Torah scrolls onto the plaza.

Bennett, who also met previously with the attorney general, is expected to amend regulations governing Israel's holy sites, in order to more sharply define what is meant by permitted “customary practices” at the Western Wall. He is not expected to embrace the sweeping interpretation of Judge Sobel, but he is not expected to fight the ruling in its entirety either.

“I will try to the best of my ability to reach a compromise”, said Bennett. “I call on all sides to lower the flames by Friday. The Wall is a holy place, not a battlefield, and I intend to resolve this issue that we have faced for years.”

Bennett's deputy, MK Eli Ben Dahan, added, “We will do all we can to reduce tensions" until the compromise proposed by Jewish Agency chairman Nathan Sharanksy is implemented. Sharansky has proposed building a new prayer section for non-Orthodox worship at the Kotel.

"King David, who bought Jerusalem, collected money from the whole nation so that everyone would have a part in the city, including of course the Western Wall," he added. "We must all make an effort to reach a compromise, in order to reduce conflicts at this site.”