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| Prosecutors said Jacob Daskal was acting in his capacity as a shomrim leader when he brought a teenage girl to his home, where he sexually abused her |
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| מילים ישירות מהתחת שלו |
To Paraphrase Elya Brudny - Whenever Daskal attacks, and when he does the most atrocious things in the world, it is only because Hashem allowed it. Hashem, the Av Harachaman, deems it in our best interest. but we cannot forget that Hashem is allowing Daskal to do what he is doing...
Brooklyn Safety Patrol Leader Who Abused Girl Gets 17-Year Sentence ("So Obvious The New York Times Hates Orthodox Jews" Heard In Shul)
Jacob Daskal, head of a private Orthodox crime patrol, took a 15-year-old runaway to his upstate home. Her family thought he was helping.
After a 15-year-old girl had run away from her Brooklyn home in 2017, her relatives turned for help to a trusted figure: Jacob Daskal, the head of a private crime patrol called the Boro Park Shomrim Society.
The girl’s aunt and uncle asked Mr. Daskal to help find their niece a place to live and he offered his summer home in upstate New York. There, according to federal prosecutors, Mr. Daskal began months of sexual abuse that took place in New York State and Illinois.
On Wednesday a judge sentenced Mr. Daskal, who pleaded guilty last summer to transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, to 17 and a half years in prison, the maximum allowed under his plea agreement.
Before the sentencing, a prosecutor, Erin Reid, read a statement from Mr. Daskal’s victim, who wrote that he had subjected her to “nightly rape sessions” and emotional abuse, adding: “I will live with the pain of this trauma forever.”
Mr. Daskal also spoke, sobbing as he told the court that “words cannot capture the overwhelming shame and regret I feel.”
A defense memorandum had asked that Mr. Daskal, who had been free on bail, receive a lesser sentence, writing that he is “plagued by guilt” and will be “forever branded by the crime he committed.” In a letter to the judge, Mr. Daskal apologized, adding: “I know that I can never repair the damage I did to this girl.”
Mr. Daskal worked as a real estate property manager but was known for his role as a leader in the shomrim, the Hebrew word for “guards.” Various shomrim organizations have existed in New York City since the 1970s, serving as a sort of auxiliary police force for ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn neighborhoods like Borough Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg.
The shomrim are valued by supporters for chasing thieves, searching for people who are missing and handling crowds at weddings and other events. But some men connected to the patrols have been accused of bullying, vigilantism and breaking the law. In 2016 a member of the Williamsburg shomrim was convicted of beating a Black student, who lost vision in one eye as a result. Later that year, Alex Lichtenstein, a member of the shomrim in Borough Park, pleaded guilty to bribing police officers for expedited handgun licenses.
The shomrim cultivate ties with police commanders, have served as liaisons with precincts and have received funding for equipment from elected officials. Members’ cars and clothing are typically emblazoned with logos that resemble that of the New York Police Department. Within Orthodox neighborhoods, the shomrim can be seen as more sympathetic or culturally attuned than the police.
Mr. Daskal was acting in his capacity as the Boro Park Shomrim Society’s founder and chief, prosecutors said, when he “coordinated efforts” with the teenage girl’s relatives who wanted to address their problems with her.
The girl moved into Mr. Daskal’s home in South Fallsburg, N.Y., in summer 2017, prosecutors said. On a Saturday in August, they said, Mr. Daskal called her into his bedroom, locked the door and sexually assaulted her.
Afterward, prosecutors said, Mr. Daskal sent text messages to her describing sexual fantasies, saying that he was “going to make her into a lady” and describing himself as a “father figure.”
The assaults continued, prosecutors said, taking place in his South Fallsburg home, about 90 miles northwest of New York City, where other members of his family were also living. They also happened in his car, when he took the girl from the home under the pretext of bringing her to see friends.
In fall 2017, prosecutors said, Mr. Daskal helped the girl’s parents enroll her in a school in Chicago. Mr. Daskal communicated with the girl by text message and video calls while she was living there, prosecutors said. Around early November, prosecutors said, Mr. Daskal flew to Chicago and picked the girl up at a driver’s education class, then sexually assaulted her in a hotel room.
In 2018, prosecutors said, as Mr. Daskal continued to try to contact the girl, she described the abuse to a mentor, who helped her go to the police. The F.B.I. searched two phones that Mr. Daskal had used and found what prosecutors said were “extensive chat communications between the defendant and the victim” including some that had been deleted but were recovered with forensic tools.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Daskal had told the girl to erase messages between them and said nobody would believe her if she described her encounters with him. At one point, prosecutors wrote, he asked her to write a letter stating that whatever sex they engaged in was “therapy” and that she loved him.
In a WhatsApp exchange cited by prosecutors, the girl asked whether a blood test could show that she had engaged in sex with him. Mr. Daskal told her not to worry.
“U know what my last name is,” he wrote. “Mr careful.”