Breaking: All Charges Against Ehud Halevy Dropped

Ehud Halevy. Photo: NY Daily News.

The charges against Ehud Halevy, the 21 year old Jewish youth who made international headlines after a video of him being violently beaten by NYPD officers surfaced online were dropped today.

“I just found out from the lawyer’s office that the charges have been dropped,” Rabbi Moshe Feiglin, the director of the Crown Heights based Aliyah center for troubled youth, where the incident took place, told The Algemeiner.

Asked if Ehud had any reaction to the news Feiglin said, ”I spoke to him earlier today, he is feeling a lot better and he is very relieved that things are working in his favor.”

“We are very pleased with this just resolution,” Lawyer Norman Seigel confirmed in a phone interview with The Algemeiner, “justice was done in this matter.”

“There was no legal basis for the criminal charges against our client,” Seigel explained, “therefore we commend Charles Hynes and the Brooklyn DA’s office for doing the right thing in this matter.”

“It was a joint effort between the lawyers, our client, the Crown Heights community, Assemblyman Dov Hikind, Assemblyman Eric Adams,” Seigel continued, “without everybody calling for the charges to be dropped it might not have happened.”

Speaking about his client’s reaction to the latest development, Seigel said, “He is very pleased with the results and we will go to court on Wednesday morning to officially inform the court that the charges are being dropped.”

An online petition calling for the dismissal of the charges against Halevy, which included a felony count of assault and three misdemeanors: resisting arrest, obstruction and criminal trespass, has garnered 105,730 signatories at the time of publication. Rabbi Feiglin says he hopes that this outpouring of support was instrumental in securing today’s result.

“Most importantly was the video evidence which refuted what the police said happened,” Halevy’s lawyer concluded, “Next time the police say X and the citizen says Y, perhaps people won’t rush to judgment in believing the police version of the story.”

31 Comments

  • Dan Y. Marshall, MA

    B”H
    I agree with the MA Rabbi. The police officers who beat him should be fired – both the male and the female, who didn’t stop the male officer from carrying on, and who assisted him as well. In watching the video carefully, I do belive that if Ehud would have not resisted in the first place, he would have simply been arrested and not beaten, however, that does not excuse the beating he received — There are very effective ways to restrain and cuff a person, and beating is not one of them – beating in this case was excessive and unnecessary force.

  • resident

    I hope it wasn’t a plea-bargain type of thing…we drop the charges & Halevy doesn’t sue or press assault charges on the cops. I also hope that pillar of society Norman “I want to do whatever looks good for me” Siegel isn’t going to lie down & give it up now. These cops should be prosecuted.

    Another thing. Halevy should sue for wrongful arrest, assault, racial hatred etc etc. He deserves his pound of flesh.

  • Put them on Tial

    The two officers (reshaim) must be put on trial. The beat somebody and they should face charges, not just lose their jobs.

  • Thank you crownheights.info...

    For shining your media light and dispelling a great darkness, kol hakavod!

  • Mistaken Identity - Hypocrisy

    I bet if the victim of the beating had been a homeless goy with no permission to be there, as the police probably believed him to be based on the 911 call from a Jewish security guard, then most of us could have cared less if he got the daylights beaten out of him. I think it’s hypocritical to seek harsh punishment from the officer, who probably thought he was helping a Jewish institution. We need to judge the police officer more favorably and be forgiving of what was likely a case of mistaken identity.

  • In the jungle

    The police need to stand trial for wrongful arrest and assault the same way citizens would in the same situation. If not, we might as well advertise that NYC is a jungle.

  • Just me

    wonderful news!!!!!!!!!!!

    But ch’ers don’t get carried away – this was just ONE rotten cop!
    His female puppy dog simply worked her baton on cue.

    Nothin a brain surgeon needs to explain.

    The cops overall are a good bunch and they all doin their jobs like any one of us doing our jobs. All b/c one acted, OK both of em acted like total jungle animals does not label the whole bunch.

    Thanks for the reporting CH.info

  • Chosen

    Just imagine how many times a day that happens to others where there is no video, and no community to stand up for them. The jails are likely full of people innocent of their charges.

  • Police should be put in jail

    They should be punished for giving perjury testimony on the police report. That is a worse crime than actually beating him up.

  • our justice system needs an overhaul

    How many times do innocent people end up in Jail because the Police lied and there is no video to prove otherwise? Why didn’t one of the officers correct the record? My hunch is that there are PLENTY of innocent people suffering in Jail because they were wrongly convicted.

    Our justice (more like injustice) system needs an overhaul!

  • #9

    #9 you must be another self hating coward who cannot, no matter what, admit there was in an injustice. so you think of any scenario that will allow yourself to beg “more, more” if you got beaten.
    They lied about the charges and beat him again and again and now you wonder if there had been etc etc.FOOL!!!

  • NOT ENOUGH

    His lawyer said ‘justice has been done’. I beg to differ. This is only the first step. What’s to stop this from happening again, G-d forbid, if the perpetrators get off scott free? We can’t have violent criminals at large hiding behind the uniforms.

  • Insecure Female -police officer-

    It’s still tough out there for women in many profesions.. but somehow I’ve never seen acting like an animal and giving up my self respect to be a way of getting respect from others. If she wanted to be treated like a police officer she should have acted like one.

  • Yesterday

    He looks a bit like John Lennon!
    “Yesterday…..I was beaten like criminal hey….and all I did was look at him sideways, oh I believe in legal aid….suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be….cause my guts have been ripped from me…oh I’m bleeding profusely….

  • CHLEAKS.COM

    Sadly the same pressure that was used here to get the charges dropped, were used to get Six other members of the Crown Heights Jewish Community (Shomrim Volunteers) locked up and eventfully prosecuted.

    This pressure to lock up Six Yiddin for over 15 years was done by the very same people who made noise in this current case to have the charges dropped.

    Why did they do it?

    Politics. People, Ehud and the Shomrim Six are just tools to be used for political agendas.

  • MJ

    Vega should be terminated, but Bruzzese still has some value to NYPD if put on full-time ticket writing duty.

  • david in chicago

    our police in chicago beat lady bartenders to a pulp .then try to conceal the crime.is this america .