The trial of a prominent Brooklyn rabbi accused of sexually abusing a young girl began in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday with a focus on the strict rules of ultra-Orthodox Judaism.
Williamsburg rabbi Nechemya Weberman is charged with molesting a 12-year-old girl over three years after her parents sent her to him for counseling.
“It doesn’t sound like modern Brooklyn, it sounds like the Salem witch trials,” said Assistant DA Kevin O’Donnell.
He said the alleged victim’s parents sent her to Weberman (pictured) after she was shunned by the Satmar Hasidic community because she questioned authority and acted immodestly.
O’Donnell alleged that Weberman fondled the girl in his office and forced her to perform oral sex, “over and over again.”
Defense attorney George Farkas noted the seeming strangeness to outsiders of Hasidic Judaism, warning jurors not to judge Weberman on his adherence to religious doctrine.
“He looks different. He dresses different. He acts different than the rest of the citizenry,” Farkas said.
The defense team has argued that the girl’s accusation stems from a bizarre incident where Weberman and her father secretly filmed her having sex with her boyfriend — then turned the tape over to authorities in an attempt to file statutory-rape charges against the boyfriend.
They say she made the accusation to retaliate against Weberman.
Four ultra-Orthodox men have been busted for allegedly intimidating witnesses in the case. One was charged with offering the alleged victim $500,000 to leave the country and drop her accusation.