Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Other Jewish institutions and contexts Hasidic and Haredi communities Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA · 2012

USA: unlicensed Satmar 'religious therapist' convicted of sexually abusing a girl sent to him for religious counseling

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed counselor operating within the Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to whom families sent children for religious/moral guidance at the direction of communal and rabbinic figures

Organization

Satmar Hasidic community, Williamsburg

Spiritual nexus

Weberman's role as a religious counselor operating with the sanction of the community's rabbinic authority structure was the specific channel through which the victim's family placed her under his direction, and the position he used to isolate and abuse her over three years.

  • Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation
  • Spiritual healing or treatment

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2012-12-10 · convicted at jury trial; sentence stands

    New York State Supreme Court, Kings County (Justice John Ingram). Convicted by a jury on 59 counts, including sustained sexual conduct against a child, criminal sexual act, sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child. The complainant testified she was sent to Weberman at age twelve for religious counseling after a school disciplinary matter, and that the abuse continued until she was fifteen. Sentenced 22 January 2013 to 103 years' imprisonment; the sentence was later reduced to 50 years on appeal, but the conviction itself was not disturbed.

Appellate history

  1. Conviction affirmed; sentence reduced from 103 to 50 years.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • his position as a community-sanctioned religious counselor, to whom the victim was sent at age twelve specifically for guidance framed as necessary to her standing within the community
  • the closed, self-policing structure of the Satmar community, in which the case became a flashpoint over communal pressure on the victim's family not to go to secular police

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting court verdict report Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 10 Dec. 2012: verdict report.

Reports the 59-count jury conviction.

national newspaper court reporting sentencing report CNN, 22 Jan. 2013: sentencing report.

Reports the original 103-year sentence.

local newspaper court reporting court verdict report Gothamist: sentencing coverage, including the victim's account of being sent to Weberman at age twelve for religious counseling.

Establishes the religious-counseling nexus through which the victim was placed under his authority.

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