Rabbi Eisemann's original trial jury proposed a real prison sentence. However, citing Rabbi Eisemann's contributions to the community and school, the support he received from his
community, the care he provided his disabled son, and his age, on April 29, 2019, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Benjamin Bucca found Rabbi Eisemann guilty on only 2 of 5 charges and sentenced him to probation plus 60 days in jail.Judge Bucca specifically stated that the sentence imposed in accordance with the Code would "shock" his conscience, and therefore he gave a lighter sentence. Rabbi Eisemann then appealed to the New Jersey Appellate Division to dismiss all the charges against him. The state cross-appealed to the court to remand the trial to a different judge because Judge Bucca was too nice. This was the State's attempt to get a harsher 6-12 years prison sentence. On December 31, 2020, after a delay due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Appellate Division denied Rabbi Eisemann's motion to dismiss completely and granted the state's request to remand Rabbi Eisemann's 60-day sentence before a different judge. The Appellate Division found that Judge Bucca was "not free to disregard the legislative scheme simply because he believed that the defendant had done many good deeds in his lifetime and had intended no harm." Additionally, the court found that "the job of saying that a sentence imposed in accordance with the Code is too harsh belongs to a reviewing court and not to a sentencing judge, and therefore, it was not proper for the trial judge to use this claim." More
Mazel tov. May we be zoche to see a full yeshua for Rabbi Eisemann very soon.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to correct something you wrote above. It was the jury, not the judge, that cleared Rabbi Eisemann of 3 of the 5 counts.
I think you have the story a bit wrong. The prosecution appealed the 60 day sentence. The Eisemanns, would have been happy with that.
ReplyDeleteWhen you read their findings you wonder why the judge didn't dismiss the the case based on the prosecutor violating the brady act... The judges always seem to throw a bone to these prosecutors - whether it was the original guilty verdict where you have to wonder how he can be found guilty for money laundering or mistrust of public funds but never charged for the actual crime... or now when a judge grants a new trial but just doesn't have the backbone to dismiss the case based on the fact that they violated the brady act
ReplyDeleteI have a question for the Tzibbur.
ReplyDeleteOur community was targeted by law enforcement for frivolous indictments and redifos. We all remember those terrible scenes, how teiyere Yungeleit were dragged away in front of their children for 'failure to dot is and cross ts'. Years later, not one conviction was produced, the whole thing was proven to be a witch hunt. Yet not one politician paid a price. Not once did our askanim/leaders tell us that this politician was to blame and we will be voting him out for it. We all know that Chris Christie was taking revenge on the Va'ad for not supporting him at the beginning by attacking non-members of the Va'ad. But what happened to other politicians?
We need to find out who was responsible for this miscarriage of justice and vote them out. Which politicians had our backs, and which threw us under the bus. Don't trust the askanim, the politicians use our bloc vote to get the DEP off their backs to make more money for them, and leave us carrying the bag.
We need to show them that there is a political price to pay for attacking the town, and the Va'ad does not get to say who belongs in jail.
There were convictions and quilty pleas. Our kehilla is/was quilty. The many askanim worked to quite things down and not expand the investigations. Don't confuse that with an innocent witch hunt.
DeleteWhat a bunch of shtusim. Politicians don't investigate, prosecutors do that. We have to find which antisemitic prosecutor did this, and ..........then what? There is nothing to do except daven to Hashem that he save us from the antisemitic prosecutors...
Delete...... and remember to always dot your i's and cross your t's.
The guilty pleas were all because the defendants could not afford a trial.
DeleteThe askanim you speak of are non-existent. I was involved. Simple Yungeleit put the money together, no brand-name askanim.
The politicians do not investigate, but they can decide whom to investigate.
Your wholesale Lashon Hara is disgusting. 'Our Kehilla is guilty'?! How dare you?!
DeleteThere is an issue that the attorney general profiles a heavily orthodox Jewish town! How can you run an investigation based on a town? Were there town officials aiding in a crime? It was all about berating and going after Lakewood - Did they need to make a whole scene and arrest people who were already known to be under investigation? Are there no other people in the state underreporting their income on govt programs? These prosecutions are targeted not based on crime - They are lets go after x for whatever reason - and lets go fishing! Was there something fishy going on with Schi or they just didn't like that the jews seem to be milking the state - They haven't seem to find any smoking gun other than their supposed 200K misappropriated funds...
DeleteIt had nothing to do with Christie but the askanim blamed him to clear themselves from involvement and shift the blame. Funny that the same askanim backed Murphy over Ciaterreli who said he would be open to a pardon for ROE.
DeleteThe powerful vaad at the time was AWOL and did nothing to stop what was happening the spokesman event went as far to call the innocent youngeleit Bad Apples.
The most ridiculous complaint about the vaad that I've seen over the years is "We were looking to do something illegal, they didn't want to help us". Enough said
DeleteAnon 10:58 - Who said about doing anything illegal? A pardon for ROE would not be illegal.
DeleteThe story with Christie was - he wished to meet and greet asskanim in Lakewood at the beginning of his campaign. The Chassidim in Brooklyn have learned, years ago, that you allow any candidate to meet you, just in case. Endorsements is another story. The Va'ad was adamant that they would not support Christie, and he was insulted. He actually told people that he would take revenge on them. Christie is a well-known נוקם ונוטר, and he set the ball rolling that ended up with these investigations. The Va'ad cannot exonerate themselves by blaming Christies, they are the ones who got him angry.
The vaad was all in for Corzine expecting a windfall for Cedarbridge and other goodies and made sure not even to meet with Christie to show Corzine how loyal they are... they gambled on the community for their own interests
DeleteAt 6:02
DeleteEven the LA Times in a editorial called it a pogrom and which hunt targetiing Orthodox jews they saw right through it its a shame that the vaad let it go on and did not respond for 3-4 days.
It took powerful baked batim from New York who screamed their heads off at the Feckless vaad until and took matters into their own hands.
We will NEVER FORGET where the Lakewood Vaad and local politicians stood at that moment when it counted. They were too dirty themselves to go ahead and fight for the Lakewood innocent.
AnonymousMay 28, 2023 at 9:49 AM I don't think the answers to your questions will make it past the censor on Hefkervelt so if you want the answers google the LA times editorial on this topic that was mentioned above. Or any other source that is not giving the anti politician anti prosecutor POV only
DeleteThe state Attorney General's Office has vowed to file an appeal, saying in a statement that they
ReplyDelete"disagree strongly with the Appellate Division's opinion, and we will be appealing further to the New Jersey Supreme Court."