BROOKLYN (VINnews/Sandy Eller) – The lawyer for a man who was involved in what was originally reported as an attempted abduction is categorizing those reports as being completely untrue.
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As previously reported on VIN News, the NYPD and Flatbush Shomrim were called after a mother suspected that her son was being abducted by a man at the Hesed Le Avraham Synagogue in Gravesend.
The man was located eventually in a nearby yeshiva and arrested by the NYPD.
According to the report in the New York Post (https://bit.ly/3j4owCS) which first broke the story, police said that the man approached the child and asked him to go outside with him, picking him up by the shoulders when he refused and “attempting to carry him out through the front door.
When contacted by VIN News about the incident, police said that the man “grabbed the nine year old boy by the shoulder in a house of worship and attempted to force him out of the location.”
But neither of those descriptions match up with surveillance video of the incident which has been circulating on social media, showing the man stopping the boy as he passes by in the synagogue lobby, placing his hands on the boy’s shoulder and speaking with him for several seconds before the two walk off together.
Five seconds later, the footage shows a woman pulling the boy aside, while the man continues out the synagogue’s front door.
Reports on social media have suggested that the man wanted the boy to proceed with him through several groups of women congregating in the lobby to avoid walking between two women, a stringency observed by many Orthodox Jewish men.
The man was reportedly charged yesterday with kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child and harassment, but was charged with two lesser misdemeanors in front of the Brooklyn District Attorney – acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17 and unlawful imprisonment in the second degree – and released on his own recognizance.
He is due back in court on March 16th.
Lawyer Avi Moskowitz, who is representing the man, called the New York Post story, which said that the mother had to rip her child out of the man’s arms, “a complete fiction.”
Moskowitz said that having seen the surveillance video, the district attorney’s office recognized that the initial information it had received was incorrect and moved to reduce the charges.
“I think that ultimately they will learn more and that this will be resolved favorably,” Moskowitz told VIN News, adding, “The jumping to conclusions here was absurd and very distressing.”
The NY Post hates Frum Jews like poison. That’s an old story. Just like some OTD commentators here, they create negative stories to paint Frum ehrliche Yidden in the worst possible light. I saw the video on a different site. It totally vindicates the yungerman. He did nothing wrong at all.
For some reason I think this mother’s name is Karen and she should be ashamed of herself and beg this person forgiveness for this false arrest and misirah❗❗
There is a Video circling around where you can see what happened. Any sane individual who watches it can see this man is innocent.
VIN, please post that video.
I’m glad the misunderstanding was revealed as I have found out that he’s a huge Tzadik and bal middos. Never spoke a mean word to a person in his lifetime.
Thru shouldn’t “reduce” the charges, they should DROP the charges.
Obviously it was a mistake. Thank God he doesn’t have his head in the gutter to even realize that perhaps what he was doing was not a good idea. He definitely had all the right intentions.
And the people that made a big tzimis about it over there could be understood as well because everything was spur the moment and they didn’t see what was going on, nor would they hear the conversation.
That being said it would be so much easier if the women would not gather in hallways blocking doors like little lemalach .
The ones to blame here are the NYPD and even more so, Shomrim who called the NYPD.
It’s very simple to pull the video on the scene at the time of the alleged incident (which is done ALL the time) and if they did that, none of this would have ever gone anywhere.
They should have been diligent and they weren’t and there is no excuse for that.
Totally innocent, if u need anything or any yeshua go get a blessing from him !!!!!!!!!
The post didn’t jump at anything. They got the report off the nypd blotter.
He turned around looked at the mother and walked out, explain yourself to her and this could have been avoided
So the “eye witness” who posted on here that the boy was disturbing the man’s learning so he took him out of shul is a life apparently.
Where can we see the security video. I’ve seen it mentioned several places. Where can we see it?
What we need to learn from this situation is to avoid this position to begin with. If a man is trying to walk down a hall women should politely stand to the side and a man should feel comfortable asking them politely to do so, rather than asking a strangers child to walk with him.
Now, Im sure I will get a hundred dislikes but remember:
1) The child’s Mother reacted based on what she saw not on video tape. She is a Mother and must protect her child. Do people expect her to first ask for the video tape then react?? Stop calling her a Karen and start calling her a loving Mother. Just because he is innocent doesnt mean she was wrong.
2) The video showed the man unnecessarily putting his hands on a child he admits to not knowing. In this day and age with too many creeps being allowed out and about this is a NO NO. Any teacher will tell you that they are now not allowed to touch their students Kal VeChomer this situation.
3) The man used the child for his own purposes. He took his chances. He could have asked the women to please move to the side.
A man who is careful about not walking between two women would, I imagine, not feel comfortable thanking a strange women that may or may not have been the boy’s mother. And he would also not feel comfortable talking to unrelated women asking them to move aside for him.
You have a lawsuit yungerman!!!
Avi is a great criminal defense attorney and you’ll be ok.
Call me I’d love to help you sue the NYPD and the New York Post on your behalf. I have the right lawyers for you. 9176270139. Send regards to Avi for me.
In fact I’ll front you $3000 for the suit.
Isaac Shteierman
Since I only read Chareidi news, I never would have known of this incident had it not been posted and printed on VIN
So really
The press is to blame
is he suing the post????????????/
The whole story would have been avoided if this person had turned to the boy and/or his mother and thanked the boy for helping him. A little menchlichkeit and hakoras hatov would have prevented this disaster.