Juror: Hasidic Suspects Can’t Get a Fair Trial
Jurors in a child abuse case against a Hasidic Brooklyn man expressed anti-Semitic bias even before the trial went underway, a member of the panel said in a bombshell interview.
The troubling assertion was made by the lone holdout, whose refusal to convict Alexander Rogalsky, 29, on a decade-old allegation of molestation led to a mistrial last week.
“They were saying he was guilty before the trial even started,” the 51-year-old woman told the News. “To them, he looked guilty even before we heard any evidence.”
She said the slanted discussions started during jury selection and continued through contentious deliberations. Jurors are routinely instructed not to form an opinion or discuss the case before all evidence is presented – but this jury ignored that order, the juror claimed.
“There was a lot of talk about the Jewish religion and one girl said it was a ‘Jewish trial,’” the juror recalled.
Her allegations boost defense lawyers’ long-standing contention that Hasidic Jews face bias because of their distinctive looks and customs.
“When an obviously Orthodox Jewish defendant goes on trial, (he’s) facing a subconscious prejudice,” said Michael Farkas, who represented Nechemia Weberman, a Satmar counselor who was convicted last year of molesting a teenage girl in a supercharged case that many say put the entire Hasidic community on trial.
Rogalsky, who works as a cook, is accused of abusing a 12-year-old boy he counseled at an upstate sleepaway camp in 2003. The alleged incident happened at Rogalsky’s Crown Heights home after the summer at Camp Bnei Menachem.
The boy told his mom about the incident in 2006 but didn’t press charges until 2011 and soon after filed a civil suit, records show.
The statute of limitations had elapsed on most sex charges, so Rogalsky was slapped with a single count of criminal sex act. The alleged victim, now 22, testified in during the trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court and prosecutors also played a recorded conversation in which Rogalsky didn’t deny misconduct.
“It seemed something did happen between them, but there wasn’t enough evidence (to convict on the lone count),” said the holdout juror, who also lives in Crown Heights, which has a high Hasidic population.
A spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes strongly disagreed.
“This is a strong case and we intend to retry it,” said the spokesman, Jerry Schmetterer. “The defendant received a fair trial.”
There is no question, however, that Hasidic Jews are treated differently in the Brooklyn DA’s office.
After years of being criticized for shielding the politically powerful community and hiding the identity of some of its alleged sex offenders, Hynes established a special program to prosecute abuse by Orthodox Jews — the only group of people with its own such program.
Over the resulting four years, 118 suspects were arrested, leading to 46 guilty verdicts or pleas, 33 for felonies. About 10 cases went to trial with two ending in an acquittal, a source said.
Cases involving Hasidic suspects also get a boost from expert testimony so the jury is informed that Hasidic victims are less likely to come forward partly because of the sect’s strict insularity. The Rogalsky trial featured one such expert.
Given its approach to Hasidic suspects, Hynes has become overzealous, said Rogalsky’s lawyer Israel Fried.
Fried, for example, said he asking for a no-jail plea deal, claiming he had the alleged victim’s consent, but Hynes’ team insisted on going to trial.
“Clients going into these cases know the deck is stacked against them because they’re Orthodox, so they’re looking for deals,” the lawyer said.
Victims’ advocate Ben Hirsch countered that these claims are nothing but self-serving traif.
“An Orthodox Jew can get as fair a trial as anyone,” he said. “Frankly, it’s outrageous to hear the ‘anti-Semitism’ card being played regarding the prosecution of Orthodox child molesters.”
The holdout juror disagrees. In fact, she’s reached out to the defense team, telling them Rogalsky “should look less religious” when he’s retried in the fall, sources said.
“I’m hoping that when he’s tried again, he’ll get a fair trial,” she told the News.
CHT
Anti-semetism is just a reflection of Hillul Hashem. Hashem want us to work extra hard so goim (that reflect our deeds) like us. Without whining, “it is not fair, it is not fair”
Of Course
This is the most obvious manifestation of the injustice of anti semitism. And those who think it’s ok because anyone standing trial may (ar may not ) be guilty is much mistaken. When it’s ok to give someone an unfair trial it becomes ok to libel and convict any innocent party of anything- just because they are Jewish.
Comment #1 is naive
You can’t ‘make’ anyone like you. The fact that goyim have a problem with us is not a reflection of our ‘bad deeds’. It says in the Torah that Eisav hates Yaakov. We are seeing that alll to clearly now.
CHT
Please, explain in your words why is it important to make Kidush Hashem and why is it important not to make Hilul Hashem.
#3 You are wrong
Most goyim who “have a problem” with Jews aren’t citing Eisav — they simply expect better of Hashem’s Chosen People. If you want to use that as an excuse for not making a Kiddush Hashem, go ahead, but you don’t speak for us Jews who try to behave properly.
BTW, #1 didn’t say that we should make goyim “like” us, you did.
Yossel
The young man in question here was a teenager when this happened. Yes, it was wrong and yes, it was stupid. However he doesn’t deserve “special treatment” by the DA nor does he deserve having to spend time in the klinker (chas v’sholom) with G-d knows who else.
He apologized and I’m sure he feels horrible guilt every day of his life.
He doesn’t deserve to be the korbon of the DA nor to be a circus act in the media.
we need moshiach
He apologized? when ? 8 years later? what did he do for his victim? NOTHING!! Hope he goes to jail and people will learn not to touch a child.
and he was 19 years old that is not a child or teenager look at the facts. look at the charges what he did was wrong and disgusting.
this is not antisemitism
Anonymous
I wonder if you asked a halachic authority about allowing the name to be publicized in our websites. True, it is public knowledge and anyone can find the original article, but why smear his name if he was not proven guilty?
just reading
#6 So you’d like us just to forget about it because he was a boy when it happened. How is that boy suppose to forget?
concerned
Let the pedophile do hard time in prison.
Think about the victim, not the monster
R' Shlomo In Eretz Yisroel
On #6 I second That comment, I agreed. Charles Hynes is a MOMZER. The jurors opinions and eventual vertict is stacked against Alexander Rogalsky.
publicity
I agree with the comment re publicity: the family is going through enough, there is no need to air their dirty laundry for the whole crown heights to see. go find your scandalous news elsewhere.
moishe
Nobody is defending AR but it needs to be fair, everyone deserves a fair trial and a fair punishment
for some reason we have this hate from people that hate the frum community to try and do what they can to put down the frum community, and to show that they can punish the frum community, is this about justice or about revenge? is this about justice or about profiling the frum community? imagine if the DA did for the black people what he is doing to the frum community, and lets see how long it lasts.
this may be a problem that needs to be taken care of but not by the people who hate us and are using this to take down the frum community
To #7
You have no clue, so don’t speak.
The alleged victim’s family admitted that the charges were brought in order to get money from the family of the boy charged. Big money. They brought a civil rights suit to put pressure also.
The charges were raised to a felony ONLY because the statue of limitations on the appropriate charge (a misdemeanor – with no mandatory jail time) had expired.
Stupid Comment
#5 apparently thinks that comment #3 wants to commit chilul H-shem because he made the obvious inference that innocent Jews have through the ages been targets to the lower elements of the non Jewish world. What a warped perspective, #5. Reading more about the history of the Jews may cause you to stop blaming the victim.
Victim?
By your logic the Jew is ALWAYS the victim — Sort of gives you a license to do whatever you want.
"Entitled to a jury of his peers"
Blacks and Seculars are hardly “peers” to an orthodox hassid!
“His peers” intent = probably closer to someone from his peer-community
Familiar w the clueless of abuseses consequences on others
stb
now I see even more, how right it was to finally make that psak to catch the molesters among us….however, we do have to be careful in such a situation where it is not clear. It is still a wake up call that we have to watch our own, to not be able to molest, or any abuse, G-d forbid. Any dysfunction in families must be dealt with, and if it is seen that something could be wrong through school, it must be dealt with as well. This is a very sensitive issue, and people must be at their best when making a move.
nachum
For those who say a chossid can’t get a fair trial in NY, I ask HAVE YOU SERVED ON A JURY?
Weberman bias?????? PUHLEASE what a joke
Weberman VS Non Jew
Who else in Brooklyn EVER got 103 years?
How many people in Brooklyn had all 12 Jurers shouting “GUILTY” before the trial was completed?
How much percent of convicted child molestors in Brooklyn faced prison on first offense?
How many people in the US are convicted based on ONE persons testimony?
Anonymous
hg