New York Daily News

Tuesday, March 9th 2010, 4:00 AM

BY Scott Shifrel

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Ward for NewsRabbi Baruch Lebovits is facing a long prison term after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy. Related NewsArticlesBrooklyn man testifies Rabbi Baruch Lebovitz molested him as teenagerA Brooklyn rabbi faces decades behind bars - and sentencing on the eve of Passover - after a jury quickly convicted him of sexually assaulting a teenage boy.

Rabbi Baruch Lebovits showed no reaction as Brooklyn Supreme Court jurors found him guilty on eight of 10 counts after three hours of deliberations.

"Thank God, justice is served," the victim's father said in the packed courtroom as Lebovits family members wiped tears from their eyes.

"This makes a statement to the Jewish community," said Beth Kaplan of the group Sacred Lives, one of several advocates who sat through the week-long trial.

"There is denial. The majority of the Orthodox community doesn't believe this can happen. Here we see it can happen."

Prosecutor Miss Gregory had told jurors that Lebovits, 59, lured his son's friend, who was 16 at the time, into a car with a promise of driving lessons in 2004 and 2005. The young man testified that Lebovits would have him pull over and then perform a sex act on him.

There was no physical evidence, and the accuser was a recovering drug addict and a thief - points defense lawyer Arthur Aidala hammered home.

He claimed the victim was trying to shake down Lebovits, who owned a Borough Park travel agency - and said a detective withheld a document showing the victim had talked about being paid off.

Lebovits, who still faces charges he molested two other minors, could get up to four years on each count.

sshifrel@nydailynews.com

Case of Rabbi Baruch Lebovitz in the death of Motty Borger, the son of Shmuel Borger (PIX News) (YouTube)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGAJDtsjN5I&feature=youtube_gdata

New York Daily News

03 March 2010

BY SCOTT SHIFREL • New York Daily News

 In a halting voice, a 22-year-old man on Wednesday accused a Brooklyn rabbi of repeatedly molesting him when he was a teenager.

Supporters of Rabbi Baruch Lebovits packed the courtroom as the accuser took the witness stand to describe a series of assaults in a car between 2004 and 2005.

"Did he say anything?" Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory asked.

"He said something but I don't remember," murmured the young man, dressed in jeans, white shirt, tie and a yarmulke on shoulder-length black scraggly hair.

He spoke so softly and with such hesitation that Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango repeatedly asked him to speak up.

"How did you feel?" Gregory asked of the alleged attacks.

"Very uncomfortable and confused," he said.

He sat less than 20 feet from Lebovits, 59, who was surrounded by supporters.

The rabbi, who owns a Borough Park travel agency, faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of a criminal sexual act in the second-degree.

He's also awaiting trial on charges of molesting two others.

The man accusing him yesterday admitted he was in rehab for heroin and crack addiction that began after the incidents.

"It's a shame to talk about it and I have low self-esteem," he said, explaining to jurors why he didn't lodge charges until he'd left the Hasidic community.

Lebovits' lawyer hammered him in opening statements, calling him a con man with a history of drugs, crime and missed court dates.

"You're going to be sold a bill of goods," lawyer Arthur Aidala said, claiming the accuser intends to sue his client. "This is a con man that's going to take the stand.

"There's no video, there's no eyewitness, no DNA, there's no fingerprints... That evidence doesn't exist because all these acts Miss Gregory described didn't happen."

Case of Rabbi Baruch Lebovitz in the death of Motty Borger, the son of Shmuel Borger (PIX News) (YouTube)

New York Post

Last Updated: 9:08 AM, January 18, 2010

Posted: 4:15 AM, January 17, 2010

By REUVEN BLAU and SUSAN EDELMAN

A Brooklyn man who committed suicide two days into his honeymoon had confided to a friend's dad that he was molested by a prominent rabbi now facing charges of sexually abusing other boys.

The friend's father told The Post that Motty Borger, 24, accused ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Baruch Lebovits, 59, whose trial -- on 75 counts of sexual assault involving three boys -- starts Wednesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

Borger's videographer dad, Shmuel, founded the boys choir Amudei Sheish. The Borgers and Lebovits shared strong ties to the Munkatch Hasidic sect. Borger attended the sect's school and summer camp and its synagogue in Borough Park. Lebovits, too, was a regular.

Borger confided his secret to his bride, Mali Gutman, the day after their Nov. 3, 2009, wedding in Williamsburg, a source close to the family said.

At 6:45 a.m. on Nov. 5, as his wife slept, Borger jumped from the seventh-floor balcony of their room at the Avenue Plaza Hotel, cops said.

Lebovits is accused of repeatedly sodomizing two boys and fondling another, sometimes in his car and even in a mikvah, a ritual bath, in a synagogue, from April 2000 to September 2004.

"It was really well known in the community," said a source close to the probe. "It was no secret."