Charles Hynes

Late last month, after 23 years behind bars for crimes he almost certainly did not commit, a gray-haired David Ranta, 58, carrying a purple fishnet laundry bag containing all his worldly possessions, walked out of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn a free man.

In the four years since he was easily re-elected to his fourth term, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes has seen his political fortunes, and the landscape around him, dramatically change.

The recent indictments by the Brooklyn district attorney of four chasidic men for attempting to impede the sex abuse prosecution of a chasidic defendant is being met with a mix of skepticism and cautious optimism by sex abuse victims, their advocates and observers.
Many are gratified to see the district attorney taking a tough stance on witness intimidation, a problem in the ultra-Orthodox community that District Attorney Charles Hynes himself has acknowledged is worse than anything he has seen even in organized crime and police corruption cases.

After months of equivocal statements about Agudath Israel’s longstanding position that — with very limited exception — child sexual abuse allegations must first be investigated by rabbis, the Brooklyn district attorney has issued a clear warning to the haredi umbrella organization that its policy puts rabbis at risk of running afoul of the law.

The already distraught mother had reached the end of her rope.

She and her husband, parents of a now 13-year-old boy who they allege was sexually molested by his Brooklyn yeshiva teacher, were doing the unthinkable in the borough’s ultra-Orthodox community: bucking a system stacked heavily against them and pursuing a civil lawsuit against the Flatbush school that employed the teacher, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko.

The system was pushing back, with a vengeance.

With increased scrutiny on the handling of sex-abuse cases involving members of Brooklyn’s Orthodox community, some elected officials are beginning to take a stand on practices tied to District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the leading candidates to succeed him last week called on Hynes to discourage rabbis from screening abuse allegations before they are reported to the authorities.

The statements came after The New York Times joined many other media in detailing instances where alleged victims were intimidated within their community.

POSTED MONDAY, MARCH 5, 6:30 p.m.

After the death of an infant who contracted herpes during a controversial circumcision practice, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said it is investigating the case as a possible criminal matter.

Jerry Schmetterer, the spokesman for Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, told The Jewish Week Monday, “Our Crimes Against Children Bureau is looking into this situation. I would not assume what any possible charges would be.”

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes continues to refuse to reveal the names of 85 Orthodox Jewish child molesters his office claims have been arrested and charged through the Kol Tzedek program, a confidential hotline it established in March 2009.

Yet while Hynes’ office has explained this refusal by citing the confidentiality rights of the victims, The Jewish Week has uncovered four press releases it issued as recently as 2010 naming convicted child molesters from the Brooklyn Orthodox community.

Police in Williamsburg arrested two teens who were apprehended by the volunteer Shomrim Patrol following a violent attack Monday night, the second such attack in two weeks.

Moshe Guttman, 44, was attacked in the same area where Joel Weinberger was brutally assaulted on Thanksgiving Day, near Beer HaTorah yeshiva on Wallabout Street and Harrison Avenue around 11 p.m. as he was leaving a Chanukah party. The attackers fled after Guttman started screaming and the Shomrim caught the suspects as they ran.