Yesterday I wrote about the surprising and distressing early release of Baruch Lebovits. This morning I emailed the public information office of the Brooklyn District Attorney.
To: PublicInfo@BrooklynDA.org
From: Yerachmiel Lopin <xxx>
Date: 10/1/14
Subject: Is KCDA satisfied that Baruch Lebovits’ release conforms with the terms of the plea agreement?
His release has my readers and many others in the community scratching their heads. He served 1 year and 6 days after his initial conviction in 2010 (4/12/10-4/17/11). His current stint was 83 days (7/9/14/-9/29/14) for a total of ~15 months.
If so, I and many others are left wondering if the DA office is satisfied that his early release was consistent with the sentencing terms and Judge Dwyer’s sentencing memorandum.
Is KCDA satisfied that the sentence served is consistent with your plea bargain?
The office of the DA promptly replied:
Baruch Lebovits
Good morning,
We have no comment on this.
Thanks,
Helen [Peterson]
There you have it. I surmise that either the DA’s office knew how short the sentence would be and didn’t care or knows that the early release was unjustified and doesn’t care to challenge it. Perhaps they even took private action to reduce the sentence. They seem to have washed their hands of any ongoing responsibility for making Lebovits at least serve one additional year for eight felony counts of oral sex with a minor. What is definitely clear is that the office is not interested in convincing orthodox abuse survivors that they are concerned about the aggressive prosecution of black-hat-on-black-hat crime.The DA is probably violating the civil rights of orthodox abuse victims by not affording them equal protection from abuse.
Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson does not seem to care about the message he sends to survivors; he is focused on his political ambitions. He recently hired Lupe Todd as his communications director. She has no experience providing public information about the workings of a criminal justice organization but loads of experience working political campaigns including her work getting Hakeem Jeffries elected to the US House from Brooklyn. She also worked for the politically powerful real estate company, Forest City Enterprises (aka Forest City Ratner). Thompson demonstrated he could win the all-important Democratic primary without Hasidic backing. But, they would be valuable allies if he aspires to higher office.
Thompson’s highest profile innovation has been vigorous evaluations of wrongful convictions and monthly announcements of exonerations. This is politically expedient because the fault all lies in the distant past and can be attributed to the Hynes administration.
Thompson is already tiring of being DA. He is a cold fish with sudden, and sometimes unjustified, temper tantrums. He is cutting himself off from most staff and delegating key administrative roles to the very political old Hynes-loyalist, Assistant DA Eric Gonzalez. In the process, he is marginalizing the professional prosecutor he brought in as his number two, the estimable Mark Feldman.
These days, all old problems are blamed on the vanquished Michael Vecchione, but some of the staff implicated in his misconduct are kept on and even promoted including the prosecutors who mishandled the Lebovits and Kellner cases, Miss Gregory, Joseph Alexis, and Nicholas Batsides. The replacement pinch hitter on the Lebovits case was Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, whose career will probably implode because of her misconduct in the John Giucca murder prosecution.
Like Miss Gregory, Nicolazzi had every reason to keep a low profile and seek an easy plea bargain. I am told Miss Gregory’s mishandling of the case is widely condemned in the office but blamed on undue pressure by Michael Vecchione. The office also overlooks the pay for no work by her subordinate Roger M. McGreaedy. Perhaps she is a valuable political asset because her father is the famous activist/comedian, Dick Gregory.
FRUM FOLLIES by Yerachmiel Lopin 
leibowitz is a pig, that being said, he is not the violent pedophile he is being made out to be.He was guilty of relations with boys that were close to the age of consent, not little kids.nontheless is a chazer and a shaigetz.
btw, since your blog is anonymous, did u sign a name on your query of the da’s office?maybe that just don’t take anonymous complaints seriously
He also repeatedly raped a 12-year-old boy.
The DA’s office has on other occasions answered my questions and I have in fact spoken to executives in that office in their official capacity.
I am not a trained “communications”/PR person, but it should be obvious that “no comment” can be the loudest, least productive comment one can make. Ms. Peterson obviously did not feel you were worthy of the blather of a “serious” PR response. Maybe eventually she, or her replacement, will learn. Maybe eventually, IY”H [God willing] the KCDA will actually pay substantive attention. What can one say, except keep up the good work?
I don’t fault Ms. Peterson, a consummate professional. This was doubtlessly a decision made several levels above her and she had the uncomfortable task of carrying it out. When she is given leeway she tries very hard to be informative.
Consider the high-profile case of Sam Kellner, who took allegations of his son’s sexual abuse to the police in 2008 and worked with authorities to gather enough evidence to help convict Baruch Lebovits of child abuse in 2010. Lebovits was imprisoned and began to serve what was meant to be a sentence of 10 and a half to 32 years—until the conviction was overturned on appeal in 2012, on the basis of a prosecutorial error, and Lebovits was released.
This was one of the greatest travesties in the world of Jewish victims of CSA.
Abhorrent. Horrific,
think there were worst travesties in e”y.???
I am not up enough of the Israeli scene. But this was the worst thing a pair of public prosecutors ever did to the orthodox victims of sex abuse. A sex abuser already convicted and sentenced to ~11 years got off easy because they arrested the whistleblower backing the accusers.
Yerachmiel Lopin, as a private individual i can only say to you,you are doing the greatest service to the jewish people as someone who was molested over a half century in a european town in the mikva at the age of 10 i personally am thanking you for the holiest and greatest kindness to all of the jewish people
Hang on.
Is this the same Lopin who led the cheers for Thompson last year, despite warnings that Thompson was out of his depth, had zero public and public policy experience, and was just using the ultra orthodox community to do his election bidding?
So Lopin Esq, dont you owe the Jewish community an apology for your massive mistake in not only endorsing Thompson, but overlooking his obvious lack of qualifications?
Look where we are now because of you….
Hynes was unredeemebly corrupt. He is tottering on the edge of several indictments. At the time Thompson seemed like a possible improvement. I still doubt he will be as bad but he is bad enough. Once I saw the signs that Thompson was falling short I called him out months ago. I don’t work for or against politicians. I work for survivors. You on the other hand seem to just be a partisan of the old order under Hynes. Please don’t play “holier than thou” with me.
See also: https://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/how-many-more-sweet-deals-from-the-brooklyn-da/
You’re implying that Lopin was directly responsible for the election results. Do you believe he hacked the ballots? Funded the campaign in its entirety? Is he also solely and directly responsible for global warming, ISIS and obesity?
LOL, SkepticalYid.
Just don’t blame me for the disco trend or dying kapporos chickens. #sarcasm
Perhaps not, but I do blame you for the national debt as well as the declining quality of liturgical music!
Why is it that if the victim was an orthodox Jew and the perpetrator was an orthodox Jew there is different treatment then if both were black, or Italian, or whatever, or if only one of the two was an orthodox Jew?
If such is in fact the case, this is outright discrimination and deserves attention from the federal government,
Where the Jewish Al Sharpton?
The Jewish Al Sharptons are busy screaming antisemitism instead of protecting Jewish children.
Had the two cases been consolidated to run concurrent? If they were he gets credit for the first jail stint, in which case he is well over 2 years. Also, this shouldn’t be a surprise since he was at Rikers.
I can’t make sense of your comment. There are no two cases. There was one indictment, a judicially voided trial verdict and a new plea deal. He served only 1 year and 6 days on his first stint before the conviction was overturned and 89 days on his second. How do you get to over two years?