Case of Rabbi Melvin Teitelbaum (Charges Dismissed)
Los Angeles, CA
Rabbi (1976 to 1982) - Ahavath Israel Congregation, Hollywood, CA
Superior Court Judge Everett Ricks dismissed the case against attorney Melvin Teitelbaum, at the request of the District Attorney's Office, which conceded it had insufficient evidence to prosecute after being accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Iranian immigrant boy.
Rabbi Teitelbaum then filed a $10-million damage suit in Los Angeles Superior Court. In his suit that the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles and the family that accused him conspired to have him arrested and charged.Later, confronted with evidence that placed Teitelbaum elsewhere at the time of the alleged incident, the siblings changed their story, a move the prosecutor said was "devastating" to their credibility.
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Table of Contents:
1984
- Charges against rabbi dismissed (12/21/1984)
- Sexual assault charges dropped against former rabbi (12/22/1984)
- Rabbi wanted for child molestation and rape (07/25/1984)
- Former rabbi threatened with jail over witness harassment (08/24/1984)
1985
- Rabbi Sues Over False Charges of Molestation (05/24/1985)
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By MICHAEL D. HARRIS
United Press International December 21, 1984
LOS ANGELES: A judge Friday dismissed the remaining charges in a molestation case against a former Orthodox rabbi who was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Iranian immigrant boy.
Superior Court Judge Everett Ricks dismissed the case against Melvin Teitelbaum, 34, at the request of the District Attorney's Office, which conceded it had insufficient evidence to prosecute.
One count of child molestation and a count of oral copulation with a child were thrown out of court against Teitelbaum, an attorney who was head of Ahavath Israel Congregation in Hollywood from 1976 to 1982.
Deputy District Attorney Sandy Buttitta, who made the dismissal motion, said a continuing investigation of the case cast doubt on the credibility of the alleged victim and his family and that she believed their testimony would not hold up in court.
Other charges against the former rabbi -- that he had tried to rape the youth's mother and sexually assaulted a second teenager -- were dismissed in October at a preliminary hearing.
''Hopefully, this will vindicate the rabbi,'' said his attorney, Mitchell Egers. ''Among those who knew him, there was never a question as to his innocence.''
At the preliminary hearing, the immigrant boy sullenly testified that Teitelbaum had fondled and orally copulated him at his family's apartment in September 1983.
But Egers said he could prove Teitelbaum was at a car rental agency near International Airport at the time of the alleged molestation.
Municipal Court Judge Nancy Brown, who presided over the preliminary hearing, dismissed a charge that Teitelbaum had tried in 1981 to rape the boy's mother, also an Iranian immigrant, because a three-year statute of limitations had expired. Egers maintained all the charges were fabricated.
Judge Brown also dismissed a charge that Teitelbaum molested an unrelated 12-year-old boy while the youth was preparing for his bar mitzvah because prosecutors could not locate the alleged victim to have him testify.
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Sexual assault charges dropped against former rabbi
By Michael D. Harris
United Press International - December 22, 1984
LOS ANGELES: Sexual assault charges against a former Orthodox rabbi have been dismissed by a judge who agreed there was insufficient evidence to prove the rabbi molested a 13-year-old Iranian immigrant boy.
Superior Court Judge Everett Ricks Friday dismissed the case against Melvin Teitelbaum, 34, at the request of the District Attorney's Office.
One count of child molestation and a count of oral copulation with a child were thrown out of court against Teitelbaum, an attorney who was head of Ahavath Israel Congregation in Hollywood from 1976-1982.
Deputy District Attorney Sandy Buttitta, who made the dismissal motion, said a continuing investigation of the case cast doubt on the credibility of the alleged victim and his family and that she believed their testimony would not hold up in court.
Earlier charges -- that the rabbi tried to rape the youth's mother and sexually assaulted a second teenager -- were dismissed in October at a preliminary hearing.
''Hopefully, this will vindicate the rabbi,'' said his attorney, Mitchell Egers. ''Among those who knew him, there was never a question as to his innocence.''
The immigrant boy sullenly testified at the preliminary hearing that Teitelbaum had fondled and orally copulated him at his family's apartment in September 1983.
But Egers said he could prove Teitelbaum was at a car rental agency near International Airport at the time of the alleged molestation.
Municipal Court Judge Nancy Brown, who presided over the preliminary hearing, dismissed a charge that Teitelbaum had tried in 1981 to rape the boy's mother, also an Iranian immigrant, because a three-year statute of limitations had expired. Egers maintained all the charges were fabricated.
Judge Brown also dismissed a charge that Teitelbaum molested an unrelated 12-year-old boy while the youth was preparing for his bar mitzvah because prosecutors could not locate the alleged victim to have him testify.
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By Michael D. Harris
United Press International - August 23, 1984
LOS ANGELES: A judge has told a former rabbi charged with child molestation and attempted rape that he will be jailed if an alleged campaign to harass witnesses and victims does not end, a prosecutor said.
''I have never seen a case where witnesses have been harassed like this,'' prosecutor Sandy Buttitta said Wednesday after meeting with the judge in the case. ''It is illegal and immoral and is a perversion of our criminal justice system.''
The defendant, Melvin Teitelbaum, 34, was rabbi of Ahavath Israel Congregation until starting a law practice in 1982, and his lawyer strongly denied the harassment allegations.
''There has never been a campaign of harassment,'' said lawyer Mitchell Egers.
''These people (the victims and witnesses in the case) are known in the community for the preposterous things they have said,'' Egers said. ''Their credibility is in question, but that is not true of the rabbi, who is known to be an honest and truthful person.''
Mrs. Buttitta said Teitelbaum's brother and other rabbis are among those who have allegedly threatened witnesses and victims in the case in an effort to have the charges dropped.
One of the victims, an Iranian woman who Teitelbaum allegedly tried to rape, has allegedly been threatened with deportation if she continues to press the case.
Recently, the mother of a 12-year-old boy Teitelbaum is charged with molesting told a newspaper that the former rabbi is innocent, claiming police had put ''words in my son's mouth.''
Teitelbaum was charged last month with trying to rape the Iranian woman and with molesting her 13-year-old son and the 12-year-old boy. He was scheduled to surrender to police July 2, but fled. He surrendered Aug. 13 and pleaded innocent.
Teitelbaum is free on $25,000 bail, which Municipal Judge Michael Tynan threatened at Wednesday's meeting to revoke if the alleged harassment does not stop.
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Rabbi wanted for child molestation and rape
United Press International - July 25, 1984
LOS ANGELES: Police issued an all-points bulletin for a rabbi suspected of child molestation and attempted rape who is believed to have fled to the East Coast, officials said Wednesday.
Police were seeking Rabbi Melvin Teitelbaum, 34, an attorney and former head of the Orthodox Ahavath Israel Congregation in Hollywood from 1976 to 1982.
Teitelbaum was wanted on a felony arrest warrant charging him with three counts of sex crimes against two boys under the age of 14, and one count of assault with intent to commit rape against one boy's mother, police said.
The alleged victims were Jewish immigrants Teitelbaum was helping to gain citizenship, Detective Ralph Bennett of the Police Department's Sexually Exploited Child Unit told the Los Angeles Daily News.
Bennett said police thoroughly investigated the case before asking the district attorney's office to issue an arrest warrant July 2.
''We strongly he has left the state,'' said Bob Gore, a spokesman for the district attorney's office.
Gore declined to comment on why there was no previous announcement on the pursuit of Teitelbaum, who was treasurer of the Rabbinical Council of California.
The alleged crimes happened over a period extending from March 1, 1981, to Feb. 4, 1982. The alleged victims kept quiet because they feared they might be deported, Bennett said.
When confronted with the allegations, Teitelbaum at first agreed to surrender at police headquarters downtown. Two hours after talking to police and one hour before the scheduled surrender, the rabbi ''fired his lawyer and fled the state,'' the all-points bulletin reported.
Investigators initially requested $25,000 bail be set, but when the religious leader fled they raised the amount requested to $250,000, Gore said.
No problems had ever been reported about Teitelbaum, said Jack Azoff, president of Teitelbaum's former congregation.
''This is devastating,'' Azoff said. ''I am stunned.''
The rabbi reportedly left the small congregation because his contract expired and he subsequently set up a law practice, Azoff said.
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Los Angeles Times - May 24, 1985
A Los Angeles rabbi against whom child molesting charges were filed and later dismissed filed a $10-million damage suit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Rabbi Melvin Teitelbaum claims in his suit that the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles and the family that accused him conspired to have him arrested and charged.
The agencies knew, the suit asserts, that incriminating statements against Teitelbaum "emanated from a family with a multitude of emotional and family problems."
According to the suit, the family of the purported victim was in therapy with the agencies and had "an extensive history of emotional, sexual, drug, religious and family problems."
Teitelbaum also names as defendants some local news media --including The Times, the Daily News and several radio and television stations -- form reporting the charges that he contends constitute libel and slander.
Ridicule, Obloquy
Teitelbaum, 34, who is also an attorney, says in the suit that this has caused him to be the object of ridicule and obloquy and has cost him $50,000 in legal expenses to defend himself and $100,000 in lost earnings.
Charges against the rabbi, who served the Ahavath Israel Congregation in Hollywood between 1976 and 1982, were dismissed last Dec. 21 at the request of a deputy district attorney, who said new evidence led her to question the story told by his accusers.
The charges stemmed from a 1983 report by a 13-year-old boy who claimed that Teitelbaum orally copulated him during a visit when the boy's parents were not at home. The boy's sister later told authorities that her brother told her about it and that she wrote an account of his story in her diary.
Later, confronted with evidence that placed Teitelbaum elsewhere at the time of the alleged incident, the siblings changed their story, a move the prosecutor said was "devastating" to their credibility.
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