Dershowitz Sued for Defamation by Sex Abuse Whistleblower Sam Kellner

Sam Kellner

The Jewish Week reports that “Four years after his life was turned upside down by charges he committed extortion and bribery, chasidic sex abuse whistleblower Sam Kellner is fighting back against those he thinks wronged him in the press. Late last year he sued The Jewish Daily Forward for defamation. And last week he filed papers initiating a defamation action against Alan and Nathan Dershowitz, the high-profile lawyers who represented, Baruch Lebovits, who Kellner alleges sexually abused his son.”

“In March of 2014, after a review of the case, current Brooklyn district attorney Ken Thompson asked a judge to dismiss the charges against Kellner. Speaking on the day of the dismissal, ADA Kevin O’Donnell told the court that the witnesses against Kellner “lack credibility to such a degree that their testimony cannot be trusted” and thus the case could not be prosecuted.”

Alan Dershowitz (photo by Sage Ross) GNU License

 “On that same day, according to a summons with notice filed by Kellner in Manhattan on Friday, both Alan and Nathan Dershowitz made defamatory statements about Kellner.”

 “This is a reference to a column in The New York Times, written by Michael Powell, in which Powell wrote that after the dismissal of Kellner’s case, “Mr. Dershowitz roamed the hallway … playing with a grin the more disquieting for the fact that his eyes ran cobalt. He spoke ominously, as he has for years, of new evidence. ‘This case is not over,’ he said. Mr. Kellner ‘may very well still be going to jail because this tape is the smoking gun.'”

 Kellner, who is representing himself, “would not comment on the filing except to say that he is not suing “for financial gain.”

 “This is just to show for every kid, no matter how small you think you are, in the end the truth is going to come out,” he said. “This is to give courage to those people. The top-notch lawyers are coming against you. You feel like you’re just a loner. But justice is going to come out in the end.”

 Click here to read the entire article.

Dershowitz has also been sued for defamation in the connection with the Epstein child molesting case in Florida.

 

The Wages of Dershowitz’s Chutzpah

Alan Dershowitz (photo by Sage Ross) GNU License

Mida k’neged mida. “Measure for measure.” This was one of the first things that came to my mind when I heard Alan Dershowitz proclaim that he was being falsely accused of having sex with an underaged girl. To be clear, I have no idea whether Mr. Dershowitz is innocent or not. But I do know how devastating any false allegation of criminality can be to someone on the receiving end of it. And so does Mr. Dershowitz. After all, he was the driving force behind the arrest and prosecution of Sam Kellner on trumped up charges designed to help Mr. Dershowitz’s client, a convicted child molester named Baruch Lebovits, get out of jail.

The case against Mr. Kellner was brought by the former Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes, under the supervision of his controversial deputy Michael Vecchione. It was ultimately dismissed by Hynes’ successor, Ken Thompson, after his office determined the witnesses against Mr. Kellner lacked any shred of credibility. By then Mr. Kellner had lived under the cloud of an indictment for 3 years.

Alan Dershowitz Announces a Sequel to His Best-Seller, “Chutzpah” (Satire/Parody)

Alan Dershowitz (photo by Sage Ross) GNU License

Back in 2012 I posted a satire about Dershowitz in connection with his defense of Hasidic pervert, Baruch Lebovits. Eventually Lebovits pled guilty to eight felony counts of oral sex with a minor. Dershowitz is back in the news with allegations that he had sex with minors procured for him by convicted child sex abuser, Jeffrey Epstein. (Epstein is one of a number of his child molesting clients along with Roman Polanski, Baruch Lanner, and Lebovits.) As is his style, Dershowitz is fighting back. I am reserving judgement on who to believe, but either way I find Dershowitz unsavory. It seemed like time to re-post this oldie but goodie.

Alan Dershowitz has signed a contract for a sequel to his best-selling book with Little, Brown & Co for a two million dollar  advance. In his first book, Chutzpah, published in 1992, he argued that “U.S. Jewry should shed its second-class citizenship syndrome and show a little chutzpah in defining its relationship with gentile, Christian America.” His new book is tentatively titled, Much More Chutzpah: How Satmar Hasidim Do It. He intends to show how Satmar has mastered the art of sticking it to gentiles and Jews alike.

In an interview with this reporter from Publishers Weekly, Dershowitz said,

These guys are fearless. The whole world is condemning them from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to the New York Jewish Week, the Jewish Press, and the orthodox Rabbinical Council of America. They don’t give a damn. Hasidim have fire in their bellies and rocks in their hands.

Move over Meir Kahane. These guys make him look like a pussy. In the outside world Jews politely debate Israel policy. In Williamsburg I almost got lynched when I forgot to remove the Israeli flag from my lapel. But then  my good friends David Niederman and Moshe Friedman announced “He’s a Zionist mamzer but he’s Satmar’s mamzer; he is going to defend our molester, Nechemya and protect our real estate from victim lawsuits.” Then I was treated to some real Satmar chesed (kindness).

Thompson Blames Everyone but Himself for the Lebovits Sentence

Baruch Lebovits waltzed out of jail (on 10/3/14) after serving only three months following sentencing on his plea bargain for eight felony counts of oral sex with a child (PL130.40). A number of us tried to get an explanation for this dismal outcome, but the official line from the Brooklyn DA was, “no comment.”

Hella Winston of the Jewish Week dug deeper and reported that Judge Mark Dwyer,

Despite being made aware that he had misunderstood correction law in a way that resulted in a notorious chasidic child molester receiving less jail time than he apparently intended – did not revisit the sentence of Baruch Lebovits.

According to the Jewish Week, the office of Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson, despite its knowledge of the judge’s error in advance of sentencing, did nothing to prevent this drastically and erroneously reduced prison sentence aside from writing a CYA letter to the court.

When the article came out on Monday (10/6/14), Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson lashed out at subordinates. He was probably particularly irritated by the title of the article, The Luckiest Pedophile in New York.* The title was based on the reaction of Niall MacGiollabhui, a lawyer for an alleged victim of Lebovits, who said, “Lebovits seems somehow to once again be the luckiest pedophile in New York.”

Sam Kellner’s Lawyer Profiled in Gaelic about the Case

Niall MacGiollabhui, Esq

TG 4 TV, a Gaelic media outlet, did a 25 minute profile of Sam Kellner’s lawyer, Niall MacGiollabhui, which correctly frames the charges by ex-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes as Sam Kellner vs. Baruch Lebovits.  MacGiollabhui grew up in Ireland and does his interviews in Gaelic. He intersperses his presentation of his case with descriptions of his current life and his reflections on missing Ireland but loving New York City.  There are also some interesting exchanges with other Irish-Americans including the head of his firm, Michael Dowd and Ray O’Hanl0n, the editor of the Irish Echo, the largest circulation Irish newspaper in the US.