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| Charles Hynes |
By MICHAEL LESHER
Last Updated:
12:35 AM, April 30, 2012
If anyone had dared to suggest that Brooklyn District Attorney
Charles Hynes’ office has an official policy giving preferential
treatment to Orthodox Jewish sex criminals, the critic would probably be
knee-deep in editorials charging him with anti-Semitism.
Alas, what’s an Orthodox Jewish lawyer like me to say when the DA’s lieutenants themselves announce just such a policy?
I’ll
say this: Hynes’ refusal to disclose almost any information about the
arrest or prosecution of alleged sex offenders from the politically
powerful Orthodox community is not only discriminatory; it’s also a
cynical insult to the victims his office is pledged to support.
Mind you, the discrimination is no mere allegation; it’s a matter of
record. In letters this month to reporters Paul Berger, of Forward, and
Hella Winston, of The Jewish Week, Assistant DA Morgan Dennehy
explicitly affirmed that his boss’ policy for suppressing information
about sex abuse is “unique” to the “Hasidic” community.
Yes, the
letter gave a “reason” for singling out Orthodox Jews — but the reason
made no sense. According to Dennehy, if the DA were to release any
information about alleged perpetrators from the “tight-knit and insular”
(his words) Orthodox community, there would be “a significant danger
that the disclosure . . . would lead members of that community to
discern the identities of the victims,” which could violate state law.
Hmm.
When the DA’s office announced the sentencing of child abuser Gerald
Hatcher last December, it gave enough information about his 11-year-old
victim to lead those familiar with the assailant to guess her name.
Surely many other Brooklyn communities are as “tight-knit” as the
Orthodox Jews — yet Hynes is evidently willing to name perpetrators
among
them.
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