Case of Lee Kolker

Case of Lee Kolker

(AKA: Lee Michael Kolker, Lee M. Kolker)

Dardanelle, AZ

Fairview Heights, MO

Elementary School Observer - Craig School, Creve Coeur, MO

Hebrew Teacher - Temple Israel Religious School, Creve Coeur, MO

Sunday School Teacher - United Hebrew Educational Center, Creve Coeur, MO

Former Student - Lindenwood College, St. Charles, MO

Former Student - Parkway North High School, Creve Coeur, MO

Convicted of two felony and two misdemeanor counts of sexual abuse. Kolker was acquitted of one felony count of sexual abuse; that charge related to an allegation that he had fondled a third girl. The jury recommended a fine but no jail or prison time.

He was initially charged with abusing 10 children but several counts were dropped before trial, and Kolker was acquitted of another count.

NOTE: There are several individuals by the name of Lee Kolker.  The individual discussed on this page was born on September 9, 1970.

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Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.

Table of Contents:

1991

1. Student Accused Of Abuse - Pupils At 3 Schools Victims, Police Say  (04/21/1991)
2. Area College Student Guilty Of Sexual Abuse (09/17/1991)

1992

1. Man Told To Apologize To Girls He Molested  (10/31/1992)

2013

1. Arizona Sex Offender Registry (12/31/2013)
2. Yell County Sheriff's Department (12/31/2013)

Also See:

1. Policies Addressing Victimization and Offenders

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Student accused of abuse - Pupils at 3 schools victims, police say

By Joan Little

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - April 21, 1991

A 20-year-old college student who taught at two area Jewish schools and was an observer in the Parkway School District has been charged with molesting 10 children at the schools.

Lee Kolker, of the 11000 block of Casa Grande Drive in west St. Louis County, was charged Friday in warrants issued by the St. Louis County Circuit Court. The charges are three felony counts of first-degree sexual abuse; six misdemeanor counts of third-degree sexual abuse; and four misdemeanor counts of attempted sexual abuse.

Kolker was arrested Friday and released on $60,000 bond. The charges against Kolker involve children from the three schools, said Sgt. Ted Zinselmeier, of the county's crimes against persons bureau.

The schools are Craig School, 1492 Craig Road; Temple Israel Religious School, 10675 Ladue Road; and United Hebrew Educational Center, 13788 Conway Road, all in Creve Coeur.

Kolker, reached by telephone at his home Saturday night, declined to comment.

But his lawyer, Brad Kessler, said late Saturday that the case was a ''moronic witchhunt'' by county police. He said authorities had been inaccurately telling parents that Kolker had confessed to some molestations, when that was not the case.

''He is the kind of Jewish kid who was raised in a very warm family environment, with a lot of touching,'' Kessler said. ''He isn't wierd. He collects coins, stamps and doesn't do drugs. He's the kind of guy you would want with your kids.''

Parkway officials said Kolker was what that the district calls a student observer-participator at Craig from mid-October until December, when allegations against him first surfaced.

Zinselmeier said Kolker had taught Sunday school and Hebrew at the two Jewish institutions. Officials of those two schools could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Zinselmeier said Kolker is accused of sexually fondling the 10 victims - two boys and eight girls who range in age from 9 to 11. He is accused of touching the children's breasts and buttocks, often while hugging them.

Jaclyn Levy, principal at Craig School, said Kolker was a sophomore in education at Lindenwood College in St. Charles.

Lindenwood had asked that Kolker be placed at Craig, Levy said. Levy said the district was familiar with Kolker because he was a graduate of Parkway North High School.

Kolker came to Craig an average of once or twice a week starting in mid-October to observe a teacher in sixth-grade classes. He would sometimes help out with tasks, such as decorating bulletin boards, Levy said.

Levy said school officials had no inkling of a problem until Dec. 12, when two parents alleged that their children had been fondled by Kolker.

School officials notified the Missouri Division of Family Services that day, she said. Case workers for the division then began interviewing students.

Levy said Kolker was popular with the children and teachers alike at Craig.

''He seemed to be very friendly and very nice,'' she said. ''The kids really liked him.''

Levy said the incidents occurred in the classroom while a teacher was present. She said the teacher may have been on the other side of the classroom.

A parent said her family had been devastated when her daughter, 10, said she had been touched by Kolker an average of twice of week for several months.

She said her daughter, formerly an A-student, had had a hard time academically since the incidents.

Zinselmeier said police were still investigating the case.

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Area College Student Guilty of Sexual Abuse

By William C. Lhotka 

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - September 17, 1992

A college student from west St. Louis County could be fined up to $10,600 for fondling two 10-year-old girls at schools in Creve Coeur, but he won't serve any jail time.

Tuesday night, a jury in St. Louis County Circuit Court convicted the student, Lee Kolker, of two felony and two misdemeanor counts of sexual abuse. Kolker was acquitted of one felony count of sexual abuse; that charge related to an allegation that he had fondled a third girl.

But the jury specified that Kolker should not be jailed or imprisoned for the offenses. Instead, Kolker should be fined the maximum the law allows, the jury wrote Judge Margaret M. Nolan. Kolker will be sentenced Oct. 2.

Kolker, 21, lives in the 11000 block of Casa Grande Drive. He denied that he fondled the girls.

The girls said Kolker had deliberately touched their breasts while he was hugging them.

The incidents took place in late 1990 at Craig School, 1492 Craig Road; and United Hebrew Educational Center, 13788 Conway School, both in Creve Coeur. Kolker was arrested in April 1991.

Kolker is a student at Lindenwood College. He had been placed at Craig School as an elementary school observer who would sometimes help out with such tasks as decorating bulletin boards. School officials said he was popular with children and teachers.

At the United Hebrew Center, Kolker taught Hebrew. He testified he often had let girls, but not boys, sit in his lap when he helped them with the language. Victims said he had fondled them while they were sitting in his lap.

Kolker's attorney, Brad Kessler, said Kolker lacked the intent of getting sexual gratification from the acts the girls alleged he had committed. Prosecutor Craig Ellis scoffed at the defense, saying Kolker had no possible purpose other than sexual gratification for fondling the 10-year-olds.

(Following text ran in the 3* Edition only)

Nolan, the judge, said the convictions would prevent Kolker from teaching again.She said the trial was emotionally difficult for the families of the victims and the defendant alike.

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Man Told To Apologize To Girls He Molested

By William C. Lhotka - of the Post-Dispatch Staff

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - October 31, 1992

A college student from west St. Louis County was ordered by a judge Friday to apologize to two girls he was accused of molesting in 1990.

The college student, Lee Kolker, now 21, showed no remorse and insisted he was innocent of sexual abuse charges.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Margaret M. Nolan disagreed.

Nolan told Kolker that ''these young girls think you are a monster.''

She ordered Kolker to apologize to the girls, who were standing a few feet away.

Kolker, of the 11000 block of Casa Grande Drive, turned to the girls and said: ''I'm sorry.''

Nolan said she hoped the apology was the first step on Kolker's road to recovery.

The girls, now 11, had testified at Kolker's trial in September that Kolker had deliberately touched their breasts.

They said Friday that they hoped Kolker would be ordered to get counseling.

The jury that convicted Kolker recommended a fine but no jail or prison time after finding Kolker guilty of two felony and two misdemeanor counts of sexual abuse.

Because of the jury's findings, Nolan said she couldn't send Kolker to prison.

She fined Kolker $5,000, placed him on five years' probation, ordered him to get psychiatric help and warned him that:

''You've got a problem, young man, one of the most serious anyone can have. If you don't straighten out, you are going to the penitentiary. You've got a terminal disease.''

While he was awaiting sentencing in St. Louis County, he was charged in Fairview Heights with aggravated sexual abuse, a felony. He was accused of molesting a girl at her family's home between April 1 and Sept. 15.

In the Missouri cases, Kolker was arrested in April 1991.

The incidents took place in late 1990 at Craig School, 1492 Craig Road; and at the Central Agency of Jewish Education.

Kolker had been an elementary school observer at Craig School and a volunteer Hebrew teacher for the Central Agency.

He was initially charged with abusing 10 children but several counts were dropped before trial, and Kolker was acquitted of another count.

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Arizona Sex Offender Registry

December 31, 2013

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Yell County Sheriff's Department

December 31, 2013

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The Banality of Rape - Several sexual assault cases in Israel

By Michael Rotem

Jerusalem Post - April 2, 1991

The law provides for heavy sentencing in cases of rape and woman-beating, but the courts hardly seem impressed. Michael Rotem finds that Israeli women are mobilizing to challenge perceptions of sex crimes 

THE 50 WOMEN protesters at the Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday may have received nothing more than bored stares from courthouse regulars - an assortment of anxious-looking lawyers, petty criminals and harried police prosecuters. 

The placards the protesters held told the horrific tale of 100,000 women in Israel who are regularly beaten by their husbands or boyfriends. One out of every three females under 18 years of age, and one quarter of all women, have at some point been subject to sexual abuse, according to Bat Adam, a recently-formed coalition of women's organizations. 

But beyond the hair-raising statistics and numbers lies the outrageous and undebatable fact: male defendants receive surprisingly light sentences for raping a girl or beating their female partner.

Israeli legislators set the maximum penalty for rape at 16 years imprisonment, thus expressing the policy that rape is one of the gravest of criminal offences. Criminal law here sets the maximum penalty for gang rape at 20 years imprisonment - the same as manslaughter. 

Bat Adam is planning a protest march on May 9 in Tel Aviv under the slogan "We will march to regain the right to walk the streets at night without fear." 

Rivka Ben-Zvi, a psychologist, runs a center to help women in distress. "We decided to get together," she said, "because the situation is worsening. The law in Israel concerning rape and sexual abuse is very modern, which, regretfully, cannot be said about many recent court rulings on these crimes."

The demonstration was the start of a large public campaign against what seems to be a widening gap between punishments given for white-collar crimes and to rapists and woman-beaters, the organizers said. 

Ruth Reznik, who runs the shelter for battered women in Herzliya, added: "What has been going on in courts in recent years might give the impression that women are worthless. I'm furious about the fact that Roni Leibovich, who robbed banks and physically did not harm anybody, received a 20-year sentence, and Mr. Ezra who murdered his wife, received only seven years with the absurd argument that his children are now orphans." 

Whereas Leibovich, the "Motorcycle Bandit," acquired infamy through front-page headlines every time he struck, the sordid crimes of rapists and woman-beaters are seldom made public. That has the effect of making such crimes blase and routine, and may well contribute to diminishing their perceived severity. 

Following is an assortment of unpublicized cases: 

* On April 19, 1986, a 43-year-old Jerusalemite violently and sexually abused a hitchhiker. He pleaded not guilty and provided the District Court with an alibi - at the time of the assault, he claimed, he was at home celebrating with his son's Bar Mitzva. He provided a video cassette as proof. 

The suspicious district attorney ordered the police to dig a little deeper. The investigators were amazed to find that the defendant staged the Bar Mitzva film two years after the celebration - and a few days before his trial began. 

For the sexual attack the defendant was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He was also tried for deceiving the court and sentenced to a year and a half suspended, and an additional year to be served parallel to his first sentence. 

* On December 20, 1990, a Nazareth District Court tried a rabbi in his 50s who was charged with two incidents of sexually attacking a teenage girl in a synagogue's air-raid shelter. 

The defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to six months suspended and fined NIS 1,500. In his verdict, the judge wrote that the defendant fully confessed and had no previous criminal record. The judge also wrote that the girl suffered no mental or physical damage from the incident. 

* In December 1990, Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, head of the Council for the Protection of Children, received a shocking letter from a mother whose son was raped several times by his Bar Mitzva melamed (instructor). 

The melamed admitted to the court to sexually abusing five boys. After a plea bargain, he was sentenced to four months imrisonment. The defendant appealed to the Supreme Court for a lighter punishment and was released until his appeal could be heard. 

"The melamed who sodomized my son and other boys is free," the mother wrote, "and my son, whose soul has been murdered by this man, did not get any plea bargain and did not even receive any treatment. 

"There is no justice," the enraged mother wrote. "How can they make a plea bargain and give such a light sentence to a man who had exploited his religious position to harm the souls of innocent children? I will fight to change the law that permits it, not only for my son's sake but for other children. The real person who's been punished was my son," the mother added. 

* On January 2, 1989, the Beersheba District Court charged 55-year-old Eilat playboy Rafi Hayun with assault, rape and attempted sodomy with a 33-year-old American tourist. He was given 18 months in prison and 30 months suspended. The judges wrote that they took into consideration the defendant's clean record, his age and the fact that it was a first incident. The judges also noted the woman's "provocative behavior" - noting her alluring clothing. 

* On January 9, 1991, a Haifa District Court tried Shimon Mor, 30, of Haifa, for brutally raping a handicapped 14-year-old girl. 

Mor, posing as a policeman, lured her to a beach where he ripped her clothes off, beat her, threatened her life and raped his helpless victim. 

The defense told the court that her client "is a young and handsome man who has no previous criminal record. He used to volunteer in hospitals and is a saxophone player." She added that the defendant is being harassed in the detention house by his cellmates and that he had expressed his deepest regrets for his deeds. 

He was sentenced to four years. 

* On February 14, 1991, a Nazareth District Court tried three Beit She'an defendants for repeatedly raping a mentally ill teenage girl. 

Baruch Cohen, 24, Yossi Deri, 22, and Shimon Harbun, 20, were charged that they forced themselves on the girl over a period of a year and a half. 

The verdict was given after the three had spent three months in custody awaiting trial. After a plea bargain the judges sentenced them to three months of work for the public benefit. 

* Last March, a Tel Aviv District Court sentenced a 56-year-old father of four to six months work for the public benefit, 12 months suspended and a year's probation for sexually attacking an 11-year-old girl. 

* On March 19 a Sharon resident, 19, was tried at the same court. Every night, the defendant sexually abused his 15-year-old sister, and raped and sodomized his teenage girlfriend. The defendant was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment and 18 months suspended. 

* On April 10, the same court tried Eliyahu Afanzar, 31, of Tiberias. The man, already serving a six-year sentence for planting a bomb in a woman's home, was accused of attempting to rape his girlfriend in an orchard. When she resisted, he locked her in his car for 48 hours. 

A week later he tried to rape her again, beat her, tried to strangle her and again locked her in his car - this time for 24 hours. 

The defendant admitted the charges after a plea bargain. He wa sentenced to two years in jail. The judge wrote that he was not happy with the plea bargain, but he considered the fact that the defendant, already sentenced to six years, would have to serve eight years in prison, "which is a long time for a young man."