Uninformed sources claim that Dr. Bradley will be the "surprise" featured keynote guest speaker at this year's Agudath Israel convention - session will be moderated by David Zweibel, Avi Shafran and Lipa Margulies. Topic - Molesting Kids With A Kapittel Tehillim.
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A judge approved a $123 million settlement Monday in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of young children who were sexually abused by former Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley.
"Although no amount of monetary or non-monetary compensation can atone for Dr. Bradley's atrocities, the settlement approved today provides Dr. Bradley's victims with means by which to facilitate the healing process," wrote Slights, who held a fairness hearing on the settlement last week.
Bradley, 59, is serving 14 life sentences for child rape after being convicted last year by a judge who viewed more than 13 hours of homemade videos showing sex crimes against more than 80 victims.
Slights approved the settlement in the civil lawsuit after attorneys for the plaintiffs agreed to reduce their fees to 22.5 percent of the proposed settlement, down from 25 percent. Attorneys will receive about $27.8 million in fees and another $2.1 million in expenses, leaving about $90 million available for victims of Bradley. Beebe also has agreed to provide up to $1 million in medical care over 15 years to plaintiffs included in the lawsuit.
The judge agreed with attorneys that without the settlement, Beebe would be staring at bankruptcy while victims would face years of costly and uncertain litigation involving a "race to the courthouse" and young children would be compelled to talk about what happened to them.
"The settlement provides a sizable fund to compensate all victims injured by Dr. Bradley's abuse through an orderly claims administration process," Slights wrote in a 54-page opinion. "And it marks a welcomed early end to litigation that, once fully activated, would have caused great distress to class members, given the tender age of the victims and the vulgar nature of Dr. Bradley's treatment of them."
Thomas Rutter, a former Pennsylvania judge who served as a settlement arbitrator in the bankruptcy of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington — a case prompted by liabilities stemming from abuse by pedophile priests — will serve as claims administrator in the Bradley case.
Rutter will be responsible for determining which claims have merit and for separating claimants into five categories, based upon the alleged harm suffered and the evidence presented. Children within each category would receive the same compensation, but it's unclear what the range of payments could be among categories.
Criteria for the five injury categories are:
— clear and convincing evidence of sexual intercourse;
— significant evidence of sexual abuse;
—evidence revealing a probability of sexual abuse;
—no evidence that would allow one to conclude that the child was abused;
—evidence that would allow one reasonably to conclude that the child was not abused.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs have received more than 900 potential claims. The deadline to submit a claim is Dec. 14, but attorneys have agreed to allow a late-filing period of 90 days for claimants who can demonstrate extraordinary circumstances. They also agreed to set aside $3 million from attorney fees to establish a fund to cover latent injury claims. Those claims would be allowed to be filed over the next five years on behalf of children who appear healthy now but later develop symptoms requiring medical or psychiatric treatment.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/19/delaware-child-abuse-case/1715867/
I wonder which קפיטל.
ReplyDeletePsalm 1
ReplyDeleteא אַשְׁרֵי הָאִישׁ-- אֲשֶׁר לֹא הָלַךְ, בַּעֲצַת רְשָׁעִים;
וּבְדֶרֶךְ חַטָּאִים, לֹא עָמָד, וּבְמוֹשַׁב לֵצִים, לֹא יָשָׁב. 1
ב כִּי אִם בְּתוֹרַת יְהוָה, חֶפְצוֹ; וּבְתוֹרָתוֹ יֶהְגֶּה, יוֹמָם וָלָיְלָה. 2
ג וְהָיָה-- כְּעֵץ, שָׁתוּל עַל-פַּלְגֵי-מָיִם:
אֲשֶׁר פִּרְיוֹ, יִתֵּן בְּעִתּוֹ--וְעָלֵהוּ לֹא-יִבּוֹל; וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר-יַעֲשֶׂה יַצְלִיחַ. ד לֹא-כֵן הָרְשָׁעִים: כִּי אִם-כַּמֹּץ,
ה עַל-כֵּן, לֹא-יָקֻמוּ רְשָׁעִים--בַּמִּשְׁפָּט; וְחַטָּאִים, בַּעֲדַת צַדִּיקִים. 5
ו כִּי-יוֹדֵעַ יְהוָה, דֶּרֶךְ צַדִּיקִים; וְדֶרֶךְ רְשָׁעִים תֹּאבֵד.
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/prominent-london-rabbi-resigns-in-growing-haredi-sex-scandal/
ReplyDeleteNovember 20, 2012
LONDON — A leading British rabbi accused of sexual misconduct stepped down from most of his public positions Monday night, following extensive attempts to oust him, The Times of Israel has learned.
Rabbi Chaim Halpern, who is considered one of London’s most senior Haredi leaders, has left Kedassia, the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, where he was a religious judge. He is still the head of his Golders Green synagogue, Beis Hamedrash Divrei Chaim, but will no longer act as the rabbinic adviser to Beis Yaacov Primary School, Hatzolah or Chana, an infertility charity.
Accusations that he had engaged in “inappropriate” contact with at least one woman surfaced during the high holidays, when a local rabbi confronted him and tried to drive him from the neighborhood. Since then, sources say that about 30 women, most of whom had gone to Halpern for counseling, have also made allegations, and several have apparently given statements to a solicitor at Teacher Stern, a top London legal firm. London Metropolitan Police are assessing whether the claims warrant a criminal investigation.
Halpern could not be reached for comment.
In the past 2 weeks, a group of rabbis, primarily from Halpern’s neighborhood, stepped up efforts to have him fired from Kedassia after hearing new claims from a woman in her 20s who allegedly approached a judge from the London Beth Din, which is affiliated with the Orthodox United Synagogue and rivals Kedassia.
Late last week, according to sources, a group of local rabbis approached a senior figure from Kedassia to demand that Halpern be terminated. But this was followed by a visit from Halpern himself, together with his father, Rabbi Elchonon Halpern — who known as Reb Chuna, is also one of London’s best-known Haredi rabbis. The proposal was not adopted.
Halpern’s colleagues gave him an ultimatum: Step down or be condemned publicly
On Sunday, a group of rabbis consisting of several dayanim and several Golders Green leaders met at the home of Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, former head of the London Beth Din, together with the younger Halpern & 2 accusers.
The meeting did not result in Halpern’s dismissal, but the rabbis gave him an ultimatum: step down or the rabbis would publish a letter condemning him publicly.
He resigned late Monday afternoon, proclaiming his innocence but saying his position had become untenable because he seemed to have lost the support of his colleagues.
One source told The Times of Israel, “People are shocked. This is going to be very traumatic for people.”
The source emphasized the belief that there remains no suggestion of criminal behavior.
Other sources said the case showed that London’s Haredi community takes allegations of sexual impropriety seriously, but that it also underscored differences between rabbis from Golders Green & Stamford Hill, a more Hassidic area of London where the majority of the women making accusations come from, and where Kedassia is based.
“In Golders Green, the rabbis are connected to the outside world, to the blogs & the papers, and don’t want to look like they’re ignoring what everyone is saying. In Stamford Hill, they couldn’t care less,” a source said.
Halpern recently testified in a legal case in which a Stamford Hill man was accused of sexually abusing a young woman. According to the Jewish Chronicle, the court heard that he called the accused “a good man,” and suggested he make a payment to the woman. The jury failed to return a verdict, and the case will be retried.
http://nochemrosenberg.blogspot.com/2012/11/child-molesting-was-common-fare-at.html
ReplyDeleteLast week I met a man of about fifty years old that grew up in Williamsburg, and the story he told me really shook me to the core.
He started his story with a statement that being molested was standard fare and that boys even shared their stories with one another.
He was a student at Torah Vodaath on Wilson Street, and the first to molest him was an elderly Yid that lived in his building, but he “only touched him”, but his rebbis really tortured him in the worst ways, and as said before he was not the only victim.
He complained to the principal of the Yeshivah and was told to keep quiet and when his father (who was not frum but wanted his children to get a Jewish education) complained, he was told “If you want your son to be promoted to the next grade hold your mouth.
He also told another rebbi about what this rebbi did to him and the second rebbi asked to show him what exactly was done to him and what he had to do to the rebbi in turn.
This gentleman told me that it took him until age twenty nine to realize that what happened to him was “sexual abuse”, since he couldn’t figure out what’s wrong with him and that maybe it was his fault or maybe he is gay. He could not get married the whole time and now, after he was already forty, he finally married a woman with several kids but he can’t have any of his own as a result of his being abused.
He tells me that he suffers mental anguish יסורי הנפש every single day, and this is after years of counseling.
Halpern should open a yeshiva - After the L.A. community tossed out Sholom Tendler from YULA and the Young Israel of North Beverly Hills - Tendler gets to open a yeshiva for misfits, supported by misfits. The Jews always get the rabbis they deserve!
ReplyDeleteVos zogt UOJ? said...
ReplyDeleteAls iz meglech - unfortunately!
An Irishman with a shteller in England, Rabbi Ivan Wachmann, was also forced out years ago because of women making these sort of allegations. He later divorced, went off the derech, remarried, and got a makeover as a Conservative rabbi in Florida.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ledEDsp6Tw
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thejc.com/node/89034
ReplyDeleteNovember 2, 2012
A Chasidic businessman charged with rape & indecent assault may have to face a new trial after a jury at Wood Green Crown Court failed to return a verdict.
Menachem Mendel Levy, 40, pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing the woman from the age of 14 until 20.
He argued that he had a consensual 2 year affair which began when she was 17.
A retrial has been set for May next year after the jury were unable to reach a conclusion following days of deliberation.
Earlier, the defendant admitted in court he had an extramarital affair with a young Orthodox woman when she was a teenager, but denied raping or indecently assaulting her.
The father of 5, who runs a building company in London, told Wood Green Crown Court: “I did not rape her, I did not sexually abuse her.”
Mr Levy said the affair "was wrong”. He was “very much” in love with his wife Yael, who testified in his defence.
"I was happy the affair was over. My marriage was good, business was good."
Mr Levy claimed the affair had begun after the woman sent him suggestive texts but had not progressed to intercourse until after she returned from seminary abroad. Full sex had taken place “probably 10” times, “it might have been more”.
But eventually the relationship “fizzled out” & was ended by the woman 8 years ago.
Subsequently, the woman’s father contacted Levy’s parents & others, accusing him of having sexually abused her, and he became aware of a “horrible pack of lies” circulating around him.
In one incident, he'd run into the woman herself outside a kosher restaurant. She “came out to scream & shout,” he said. “She accused me of molesting her. I said, ‘You know it’s not true.’ She said, ‘It’s true’. I said we had a meaningful relationship. She said, ‘I was 14.’ I said, ‘You know that was not true.’”
Defence counsel Tania Griffiths said no one regretted the affair more than Mr Levy. “Unfortunately, he has human frailties, but we all do,” she said. He was a “charitable man”, she said, and described as “a good man” by leading Golders Green rabbi, Chaim Halpern, who gave evidence at trial.
Prosecutor David Markham called Levy a “predatory & controlling individual” who exploited a vulnerable young woman.
Ms Griffiths called the woman “manipulative”, who in a letter years after the relationship suggested Levy pay £4,300 towards her therapy fees & contribute to her degree course fees of £3,500 a year.
Mr Levy, who admitted to rabbis he had had an affair, followed their suggestions on how to make recompense.
He made a charitable donation to the family of £1,500 through one rabbi, which the father kept for the woman’s therapy fees.
When another rabbi — Halpern — suggested further payment of £4,000, Levy had been reluctant in case it were taken as an admission of the allegations.
“The rabbi said ‘pay it’; he paid it,” she said. In the event, the money was rejected by the family.
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/90908/burglar-used-hebrew-code-break-jewish-school
ReplyDeleteBy Anna Sheinman, November 16, 2012
A man has been found guilty of 15 separate burglaries of a Jewish primary school in Golders Green, where he repeatedly emptied the charity box to fund his cocaine and amphetamine addictions.
Schneur Simmons, 23, of Golders Green, was imprisoned for nine months for the repeated burglary and ransacking, often during Shabbat of Torah Vodaas primary school, which is connected to Golders Green Synagogue.
Judge Nicholas Browne, QC, said: “It is an aggravated feature that you struck these premises during the Sabbath when you knew nobody would be there.”
Simmons gained entry to the premises because the door code was written in Hebrew next to the combination pad.
His defence counsel explained that often this was all that was necessary to enter the school, because doors were left unlocked in order to avoid carrying keys on Shabbat.
Simmons stole an estimated £500 in order to fund his multiple addictions and pay off his debts to drug dealers. The court heard that he had gone to live with relatives in Israel for six months in order to conquer his drug habit, but returned to the cycle of crime and drug-taking when one of his dealers demanded money and became “increasingly threatening”.
Simmons also admitted 11 other counts of theft.
He told police: “I can’t remember, I think it was me, I’m almost certain, yes.”
He later supplied the names and addresses of his dealers to the police.
His defence lawyer said: “It goes without saying his remorse is enormous. He rang me up and said ‘what can I do to make this up to the school?”
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/46410/one-four-jewish-women-suffer-abuse-home
ReplyDeleteThe majority of those interviewed by JWA said that the violence had caused them to feel more distant from Judaism, while seven reported negative experiences of the Beth Din during the divorce process. One woman was told her husband would only provide a get if she signed a document exonerating him from any type of abuse. The Beth Din advised her to sign it.
"I just felt cut off from the Jewish community because of all this," one woman said. "And it still hurts."
Federal prosecutors have just charged another former employee of SAC Capital. They are calling this the most lucrative insider trading case in history - $276 million against a single defendant.
ReplyDeleteThey keep tightening the vise on CEO Steve Cohen who was the victim of a bizarre extortion plot that sent Milton Balkany of the Rubashkin clan to prison.
Shmarya continues to sink to new lows. He slandered almost the entire rabbinical & lay leadership of the Lower East Side as supposedly not helping the poor during Hurricane Sandy. The facts are that rabbonim & askonim were working around the clock.
ReplyDeleteShmarya is truly evil. He is attacking R' Dovid Feinstein as "selfish" for going away to spend Shabbos in an area that had electricity, being that in Shmarya's warped view, R' Dovid had no right to do that when some residents had (almost) nowhere to go if they decided a NYC shelter was too uncomfortable. When someone pointed out that Rebbitzen Feinstein is not well & it would be a sakonnah for her to stay in a building with no power, Shmarya modified his attack to say well maybe the Feinsteins had to go but I am an empath who can read R' Dovid's brainwaves to "know" that he doesn't give a damn about poor people with no Shabbos invitations from outside the neighborhood.
There are plenty of blogs run by people who really want to fix Klal Yisroel's problems. It is a shame that anyone pays attention to that sicko Shmarya.
It gets better! As I keep reading, I see a Hatzolah official come on to blast Shmarya for what nerve he has. Shmarya demanded that R' Dovid Feinstein & his sickly rebbitzen not evacuate when they were in a MANDATORY EVACUATION ZONE that ended up being UNDER WATER.
ReplyDeleteShmarya's response to that is oh, R' Dovid was just sitting around comfortably with lights on in Flatbush and stuffing his face with dinner because he doesn't care about anybody.
R' Dovid is well into his 80s and has to eat for gezunt. Hypocrite Shmarya implores healthy 20 year olds to eat on every taanis altz sakonas nefoshos. And he's no Brisker becuase he is including Tisha B'Av.
Shmarya never names his sources with the excuse that the community with retaliate against them. That is a valid excuse when sources are normal people who are in communication with normal bloggers. But Shmarya has a history of huddling with mentally ill shnorrers and other imbalanced conspiracy theorists. When umpteen Jewish organizations were climbing 20 flights of stairs in every East Side building to make sure people had what to eat, MAYBE one person was missed by accident, but Shmarya's "source" is obviously a nutcase & liar the make they make it sound like there was wholesale abandon of residents.
ReplyDeleteRemember that when one of Shmarya's Brooklyn "sources" was unmasked, it was the mentally ill shnorrer Howard Frank. Howard's beef with the frum community was that they did not find him a wife who could bear him children and settle him into a house costing close to $1 million. That is detached from reality. Not only was he old & mentally ill but he badly needed a bath. Still, the community gave Frank meals, clothing & other needs. But Shmarya wove this into something completely different - a pack of lies that no one did anything for him & ultimately caused what Shmarya calls Frank's murder and the Medical Examiner calls either an accident or suicide. Even if it was a murder, the only two people under suspicion are goyim who Frank hung out with.