Victim Of Alleged Haredi Pedophile Speaks Out

An alleged victim of Meir Dascalowitz and the victim's father speak to Mary Murphy of PIX 11 TV News about the alleged abuse and their hasidic community's response to their coming forward.
 

The Brooklyn District Attorney has denied a claim by a Williamsburg father that prosecutors offered an accused molester probation--no jail time--if he pleaded guilty. The father was talking about 27 year old Meir Descalowitz--who lives in an Orthodox Jewish enclave in Williamsburg--and now stands accused of repeatedly molesting the man's son, starting when the victim was 12 years old. We are withholding the family's last name, because the boy is still a minor. His father says the teen suffers from mild retardation.

The boy's father, Mordechai, sat down for an exclusive interview with PIX 11, telling us his son, now 15, is so troubled, he molested his younger brother and another classmate at school. "He got kicked out of his school since April. No school, no camp. He's ashamed when people ask him why he's not in school."

The suspect in this case, Meir Descalowitz, had told cops after his May arrest that he, himself, was a victim of sexual abuse as a youth. He blamed Rabbi Baruch Lebovits, who was just sent to prison in April, with a sentence of 10 2/3rds to 32 years in prison, in a different case.

Today, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney told PIX 11 there was never an offer for Descalowitz to get no jail time. "The truth is, we offered him five years in prison, with ten years of 'post prison' supervision." Descalowitz is supposed to have a court appearance this Wednesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

There's no word on whether he would accept the deal.

PIX 11 also spoke to the 15 year old who says he was raped by Descalowitz, outside the synagogue on Hooper Street in Williamsburg, where the family says the abuse started. The teen told me three years ago, when it began, he didn't understand what was happening. He said Descalowitz told him "he did it with a lot of other kids". The teen's father said his son denied he was being sexually abused for a long time, even when he came home from school with bloody underwear. He only confided his secret to his parents this past April and told them the suspect bombarded him with pornography. Since then, the family has been in therapy and Mordechai, the father, said he's revealed a secret of his own: "I was, seven times, a victim of molestation," Mordechai told PIX 11. "Seven, separate molesters. Not one, not two, I was molested seven times in my life." He told us the first molester was a close relative. The debate about reporting sexual abuse has been dividing the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn--and elsewhere--for several years now. Mordechai told PIX 11 his own parents have ostracized him from their family synagogue. "Tati and Mommy," he said, "you should tell these people 'this is my son. His children were molested. I will stand by him.'"

רבותי! דער מאנס ונואף מאיר דאסקאלאוויטש האט זיך מודה געווען צו דעם דעטעקטיף אז ער האט שוין מאנס געווען מער ווי 50 קינדער וואס ער געדענקט - איך בעט ענק בכל לשון של בקשה לאזט ענק נישט פארפירען פין די פרומע וצדקתך'ס וואס שרייען מסירה, ווער עס האט א קינד וואס איז זיינער א קרבן, קומט אראס און פיילט א קאמפלעין מיט די פאליס אדער דעם דיסטריקט אטארני און לאזט וויסען מיך אדער איינעם פון די אנדערע children's advocates כדי מען זאל עס נישט קענען אפווישען - לאמער עהם אראסנעמען פין צירקולעישאן אף א לאנגע צייט.Rabosay! The rapist and molester Meir Dascalowitz, admitted to the arresting detective, of more than 50 children that he remembers molesting. Please don't let yourself being fooled by these goody-goody's who cry mesirah. If your child is a victim of this beast, please come forward and go to the police or the District attorney and then inform me or any of the other child advocates, so they won't be able to whitewash it - Let's put him away for a long time and have a cleaner community.