Kellner injustice: Demonstration for Kellner on Thursday

Brooklyn, New York - July 10, 2013 - Today, members of several large abuse advocacy organizations announced that they would be joining together this Thursday to protest unfounded charges from the Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes's office against Sam Kellner, a father who reported his son's allegations and heroically encouraged others to do the same against notorious abuser Boruch Lebovitz in 2010.

Kellner stands falsely accused of having blackmailed a witness into testifying against Lebovitz but as reported in The New York Times and The Jewish Week, prosecutors recently told the trial judge that they found their key witness was unreliable despite Kellner's defense having asked the DA for a month to look into the credible allegation that the witness against Kellner was being manipulated.  Furthermore despite the case being unprosecutable at this point the DA has still refused to drop the charges. Said witness has changed his story on several occasions and has been found to have been receiving money for expenses from an activist in the Orthodox Jewish community, Zalmen Ashkenazi, a Lebovitz supporter he previously claimed he did not know.

Just received this letter:

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Hi I am a Satmar Brooklyn Jewish Hasidic Father and as a child who was myself sexually molested i cannot speak up to my abusers but ask you to please help out. 

Tomorrow morning will be a rally in downtown Brooklyn in support of Sam Kellner, A father of a victim abused by Rabbi Baruch Mordechai Lebovits, a notorious child molester who has harmed many children, 

As reported by the Jewish Week, the New York Times, The New York Daily News and others, Sam Kellner is being prosecuted by Brooklyn DA Hynes based upon allegations brought to the DA by Lebovits' son & friend Moshe Freidman, known as Moshe Gabba, The head assistant to Satmar Rabbi Zaly and his father the old Satmar Rebbe, which will deliver Hynes His block vote to get reelected! 

We are respectfully calling upon Mr. Hynes to immediately drop the charges against Sam Kellner and to also conduct an investigation to determine how this case was allowed to be brought in the first place. 

Join us this Thursday at 11am outside the DA's office at 350 Jay Street in Brooklyn to show your support for Sam Kellner and justice.

If you have any questions about the details of this event feel free to email its organizer Chaim Levin at: chaim89@gmail.com

Further details:

https://www.facebook.com/events/194120940750790/

Thanks!

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NY Times   Brooklyn prosecutors had been scheduled on Monday to open the trial of an Orthodox Jew charged with paying a child to falsely testify that he was a victim of sexual abuse. 

But in a dramatic reversal, they told the trial judge that their key witness was no longer trustworthy, indicating the potential collapse of a controversial case that highlighted the complicated relationship between District Attorney Charles J. Hynes and the politically influential Orthodox community.[...]

The filing of charges against Mr. Kellner prompted criticism from advocates for victims of sexual abuse who viewed him as a whistle-blower. It also undermined the conviction of Mr. Lebovits, which had been a high-profile achievement of the district attorney’s campaign to persuade members of the insular Hasidic community to cooperate with authorities in such cases.[...]

The problems with the cases against Mr. Lebovits and Mr. Kellner have raised new concerns. Among them is why separate units of the office pursued cases that were directly at odds with each other: the sex crimes bureau prosecuting Mr. Lebovits and the rackets division prosecuting Mr. Kellner. Both relied on a witness who court records show was addicted to drugs. 

The concerns come even from inside the district attorney’s office, where some have worried that Mr. Lebovits’s lawyer, Arthur L. Aidala, had undue influence.[...]