Brooklyn, NY – A Brooklyn judge has rejected an Orthodox Jewish day school’s attempt to settle a civil lawsuit brought by a boy who said he had been sexually abused by one of the school’s teachers.
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Supreme Court Justice Jack Battaglia denied Yeshiva & Mesivta Torah Temimah Inc’s motion to enforce a confidential settlement because the parents of the alleged abuse victim changed their minds and rejected the deal after they signed it in 2011.
“The court cannot say on the record presented that the refusal of (plaintiff)’s parents to proceed with the settlement in accordance with the Feb. 15, 2011, settlement agreement is unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious,” Battaglia wrote in a ruling Wednesday.
The underlying lawsuit was one of several filed by alleged abuse victims and their parents against Yeshiva & Mesivta Torah Temimah, which operates Orthodox Jewish day schools in Brooklyn, the ruling said.
The case was brought in 2006 by a boy who said he was abused by Rabbi Joel Kolko during the 2003-2004 school year. It was not immediately clear whether Kolko still teaches at Yeshiva Torah Temimah.
The boy, who according to the ruling is now 15 years old, is not named in the decision. His parents are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The claims include negligence in hiring, supervising and retaining Kolko and breach of fiduciary duty.
In 2011, the parties reached a confidential settlement agreement, which was signed by the boy’s parents, the ruling said. Days later, the parents reversed course and said they no longer agreed to the settlement, which they said had been signed under “duress,” the ruling said.
The parents also said they had come under fire from some members of their community. A rabbi at the school told them they would “bankrupt” the yeshiva and destroy it in the way “the Nazis (have) destroyed” the “yeshiva in Europe,” the ruling said.
Lawyers for the school disputed that the parents had signed under duress, according to the ruling. They moved for an order approving an infant compromise, which would allow the court to approve a settlement involving a claim brought by a minor.
Battaglia rejected the request.
The settlement “might well be found to be in the infant plaintiff’s best interests, but that is not the standard for a settlement contrary to the judgment of the infant plaintiff’s parent and counsel,” the judge wrote.
The school and a lawyer for the plaintiff did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday.
CRIMINAL CASE
Kolko, a first-grade teacher who taught at the Yeshiva Torah Temimah in Brooklyn, was indicted by local prosecutors in 2007 for sexually abusing a former student. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and was sentenced to three years’ probation.
He was rearrested in 2010 after prosecutors accused him of violating a protective order that barred him from interacting with the boy who had accused him of abuse. Following a jury trial last year, Kolko was acquitted of violating the protective order.
A lawyer who represented Kolko in the criminal case did not immediately return a request for comment and Kolko could not be reached for comment.
It is unclear if the boy in the criminal case is the same as the one in the civil lawsuit before Battaglia. It is unclear whether Kolko still teaches at Yeshiva Torah Temimah.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has come under scrutiny in recent years for his office’s handling of sex abuse cases involving members of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community. In some media reports Hynes has been accused of helping community leaders cover up high-profile accusations. Defending his office’s actions, Hynes has said secrecy may be necessary in some cases to help shield victims from harassment and intimidation.
In 2009, Hynes created a program called Kol Tzedek — Hebrew for “voice of justice” — to help victims of sexual abuse in Brooklyn’s insular Orthodox Jewish communities come forward. The program has led to 112 arrests and there are about 50 cases pending, according to Hynes’s office.
On Tuesday, a Brooklyn judge sentenced an Orthodox counselor, Nechemya Weberman, to 103 years in prison for abusing a young female patient.
The case is John Doe No. 4. v. Yeshiva & Mesivta Torah Temimah Inc, New York State Supreme Court, Kings County, No. 37492/2006.
For the plaintiffs: Frank Floriani and Glenn Nick of Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo.
For the defendant: Avraham Moskowitz and M. Todd Parker of Moskowitz & Book.
Good. I’d like to see them throw Lipa Margulies in jail too for harboring and enabling this criminal Kolko for so many years. I still cannot understand how any parent can send their son to this yeshiva.
Good. It’s time to stop covering for these abusers and their enablers. Once again we sadly see the need for secular courts or authorities to protect us where some of our Rabbanim won’t.
It will interpreted as antisemitism by a goyishe court instead of prosecuting orthodox perverts
By: Rebecca Solnit
“Here in the United States, where there is a reported rape every 6.2 minutes, and one in five women will be raped in her lifetime”
“though a rape is reported only every 6.2 minutes in this country, the estimated total is perhaps five times as high. Which means that there may be very nearly a rape a minute in the U.S. It all adds up to tens of millions of rape victims.”
“Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta estimated that there were 19,000 sexual assaults on fellow soldiers in 2010 alone and that the great majority of assailants got away with it”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-solnit/violence-against-women_b_2541940.html
Does anybody know what happened tens of millions! abused and ‘forcefully raped’ in the USA! are they getting the same treatment (113 years) as frum jews get!?
Torah Temima has NOT accepted any accountability or responsibility in the Kolko fiasco. Neither the Board nor the Administration has shown any remorse what-so-ever. Without remorse there is no teshuva, without teshuva there is no trust. The Administration has been the same throughout the history of TT, yet the parent body has neither expected nor demanded change. THEY have gone on like blind ducks as if nothing untoward happened at their school. They are as deaf, dumb and blind as well as clueless as the Satmar community has been in regard to Weberman. They continue to honor the Rosh Yeshiva and administration without worrying about their own children. How do they know that there is no Kolko number 2 or 3 in their midst? They don’t.
I am glad that at least these parents are standing up for their child. At least these parents stopped drinking the KoolAid TT is serving. Rabbi A, is this what you meant when you told me I’m a troublemaker? And by the way, you lied, you see, the Yeshiva DOES have a lawyer.
the real question is why do parents still send their sons to Yeshiva Torah Temimah? It is unconscionable that any parent still send their sons there.
no rabbi or leader said do not send your kid their amazing
The same people who protected Kolco are still in charge of the yeshiva. After the story broke the very next day the yeshiva should have been emptied and or boycotted
What does this have to do with Weberman? Kolko is a monster and he admitted to it – Weberman is innocent and maintains that – just because both are frum there is some connection? Would Reuters connect two unrelated Presbetyrians or Lutherans in an article about abuse?
People in this forum (myself included) need to learn how to give the benefit of doubt to others, also known as, ‘daan l’kaaf z’chus’.
What Kolko did was unconsciable, everyone agrees with that, but why jump and condemn the whole Yeshivah including Rabbi Liepa Margules, he’s not the enemy!
As far as Weberman is concerned, what he did, if in fact he did, was a huge crime, but lets be clear on one important point, there was no rape, he WASN’T convicted for rape. He was convicted for molestation, NOT RAPE, there’s a huge difference, you realize, I hope.
Rabbi Kolko and Rabbi Margolis live in the USA. It is time they learned to OBEY the LAWS of this Country!! They do not live in a shtetyl!!
What about the halacha of two eidim to find someone guilty, no matter what we know of the story, or claim. Was there ever 2 Eidem in any case?
#9 very nice.
#14, & #15 I hope you find the strength to take your head out of the sand and live in the land of reality. It’s quite nice once you get used to the glaring bright light.
Why do parents choose this yeshiva when there are so many other safer ones? Don’t the parents at least worry about their children’s safety?
Why blame Margulies? I will tell u why. While kolko is a sick man, Margulies protected him and enabled him for all those years. He threatened children and parents alike. Please do not call him rabbi. He is a low life.
Your’e acting like the accused the witness and the judge combined, while your’e neither of them (yet..)
It is high time that our children and their parents felt that they are living in a safe community with ZERO TOLERANCE for abuse. Our paramount concern should be the welfare of our children. Not the institutions and its leaders. The Weberman case sent a clear message to the Satmar community. No more cover-ups and no more tolerance for abuse The Torah Temima case will hopefully send a message to the Litvish world. Torah Temina? Molestation is NOT Torah. Molestation is NOT Temima. The Rabbanim and community Askanim should do all in their power to restore our faith in their leadership by closing down this school. We await for their public condemnation.
This folks is the reason we need to thank Hashem for the internet! (What Asifa?…)
If you want to regulate how we run our Yeshivos (and Rabbonim)
Maybe you should redirect a small portion of the $16,000 you pay for each public school student and give a drop to our Yeshivos as tuition grants. (Like many other states do).
Maybe then our Yeshivos will be able to hire more proffessionals that fit your standards.
After all, school funding officially comes from property taxes which Religious owners pay equal.
Why throughout history do Jews seem to get bigger punishments than average.
15% of children in the US were molested.
Who gives hynes the right to target “Orthodox” pedephiles.
Imagine someone would go and open an organization to catch “theives from the -black- community”. That polititian would need to resign the next day.
For all those mocking the Rabbonim for protecting members of our community.
Are so many Rabbonim Stuped??
Torah says to respect the Rabbonim, they have a mind of Torah. I don’t think we should support Hynes when he forces Rabbonim to meat his agenda.
Is it only my impression that anyone questioning the crusaders for justice for our children (a.k.a. Lets destroy the system!) is abused, insulted and verbally attacked?