Rockland County, NY – In a surprise twist, New Square resident Shaul Spitzer was granted “youthful offender” status at a resentencing hearing today, which will trigger his release from jail.
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State Supreme Court Justice William Kelly said though he was initially against allowing the change in status, he was convinced by Spitzer’s comments that he had, in fact, matured, and would not commit such a crime again, much to the satisfaction of some 40 Spitzer supporters who attended the hearing.
Spitzer, a former aide to New Square Grand Rabbi David Twersky, had been serving a seven-year prison term at the East Correctional Facility for an assault on Aron Rottenberg, 48, an alleged “dissident” who did not adhere to Rabbi Twersky’s dictates. A then 18-year-old Spitzer attempted to burn down Rottenberg’s house in the early morning of May 22, 2011 with a firebomb, leaving Rottenberg burned over 50 percent of his body.
The married father and grandfather needed skin grafts and months of intense rehabilitation. He says he still cannot use his right arm or work as a plumber.
An appeals court returned the case to the lower court for resentencing because of the “youthful offender” issue, noting that the lower court judge did not consider whether Spitzer should have been considered for the status.
News of the possibility of Spitzer’s impending release was met with anger by Rottenberg, who told The Journal News (http://lohud.us/1LAi7E4) last week, “If they succeed in getting Spitzer out early, it will prove to them they have the power. They have what they call the bloc vote. They are very good at working politicians.”
“I am the victim,” he added. “Why should I have to compromise? I did once. They broke their promises. I can’t trust them.”
Wow b”h, thanks Vin for such great news, (3 years for a youth was more then enough)
Absolute despicable! I just got a clip of those skver people singing and dancing! How are they better than the muslims!!!!
He tried burning an entire family the way ISIS burns people alive. The Rabbi and all chasidim, instead of being horrified at what has occurred in their “Shtetl”, instead of condemning the act, instead of apologizing for what was intentionally done, instead of denouncing it publicly, instead of looking into their ways to see how such an awful thing came about and what can be done to ensure it never repeats itself, they fundraised and manipulated their way out of this mess. Today is a very sad day for Klal Yisroel. Seems the Rebbes and heads of the Kehilla and Shtetl have their priorities awfully screwed up and they are sadly the ones in charge.
Hodi lashem im not from skvere just a plain jew and very happy for him and for rottenberg he learnt his lesson the hard way nxt time if u belong to a community do what they want or move and for all the self hating jews and skvere haters this is for u to
Great job! Chased Hashem!
Just watch whats coming next in all gossip blogs:
Mrs. Clinton influenced Judge to release Spitzer for exchange of New Suare votes
Anyone who thinks that this kid wanted to burn any human being is ignorant. He wanted to burn the house not the people. Im not justifying that, but I do find it despicable when people who have no sense of what this community is all about are passing judgement and comparing them to ISIS.
What would the holy chassidim do, if Spitzer would become disgruntled with the Rebbe or one of his family members, and try to do the same to them?
Spitzer did a young foolish act that could have cost lives r”l and b”h didn’t and not justified. It is sad what Mr. Rottenberg went through so much pain and agony but b”h he is healing. Spitzer served some time and has grown and matured by now the hard way. For him sitting any longer would not make Mr. Rottenberg heal faster. Yes, I am happy that Spitzer can begin focusing on his future while I wish Mr. Rottenberg a full recovery.
this is a travesty. you do the crime you should do the time. he was old enough to fire bomb someone he is old enough to go to jail for it.
Let’s see what kind of Shidduch this nut job receives. Bet you no decent family in New Square takes him. Some poor Nebecb girl will be told that he is a Tzadik and be forced to marry him. This village is a great example of The unintended consequences of how Chasidim behave in the absence of laws. Nebech.
I read all the mean spirited comments to my post for say that his intention was not to kill. If am so stupid, why does the law recognize the intention of a criminal. Do any of you know that one of the conditions to accuse for mureder is to prove intent?
How can any of you compare a chusid doing old shtick to protect what he thought was the dignity of his rabbe to ISIS? U all know that he just wanted to light the house on fire and harm anyone physically.
Skver is an old traditional village, so you find this type of crime there. The Five Towns and other like communities is loaded with white collar crime, and I don’t see the outrage.
It is only a matter of time before all those corrupt officials and “Rabbis” will be led into the court house with cuffs.
He was just a patsy. Twersky should sit for instigating attempted murder.
Did anyone from Skver dance and sing when Mr. Rottenberg was released from the hospital?
כל מקום שיש חילול השם אין חולקין כבוד לרבי
What are we Moslems? Apparently this judge had his palms greased by the local Hasidim
Sick society. I wonder what kind of sentence these Hassidim would want if one of their own were torched!!!
I’m concerned about his poor future wife. This young man foolish at best depraved for sure learned a less than optimal lesson about behavior and consequence. What does he do? Blow up her kitchen if she makes dairy on a night he wanted meat?
The Rebbi strikes again! What a joke! Anyone defending this “boy” or happy that he’s out should try getting burned.
BY reading these comments i am ashamed of my fellow jews. A non-Jewish judge had more mercy on this boy than all of you. This kid made a huge mistake & served 3 years for it, that’s ENOUGH!!!!
40 year old mafia members serve less for attempted murder
To those of you that want Spitzer to burn in hell. You are wrong. You should want his Rebbe and all of the community that backed him, and the judge to burn along with him.
Not being a lawyer I would hope that there is some legal recourse to this decision.
I also wonder if any similar ruling was ever handed down in another case of attempted murder or our wonderful co religionists have financed a brand new legal milestone
This aggression will not stand.
Rothenberg will be in pain forever from his burns. He was forced to pray in another shul in order to protect his dear son. No one ever mentions that fact and it is still hidden by the community. There is more sexual abuse in NS than in Africa, yet no one ever discusses it!!!
And CYL and his cronies have now been assured reelection!
This is a travesty of justice!
As most of the normal posters have noted, this is an aberration of justice and the judge was obviously influenced by the politics. Many of us will not be especially upset if the Skvere gabboism who initiated this terrorist attack suffer the same pain that poor Reb Rottenberg experienced.
It says in davening that Hashem says His Name will be called upon us. What does that mean? It means when people interact with us, they know we are G-d’s people and judge us with more scrutiny, expect us to have higher standards along the lines of what they would imagine are G-d’s standards. People in America expect that part of G-d’s standards is not to murder or burn down people’s houses no matter what the reason. To hear that people were singing and dancing when this monster was released causes one to think that they are criminal supporters. If they are not supporters of criminals and were just worried about the perpetrator and hoping he could now start to rehabilitate and try to work toward living a life according to at least the Ten Commandments, it is in exceedingly poor taste and even cruel to make this dance public knowledge. There is a man who is a permanent victim and all concern in public should be for him, not for the would-be murderer. The victim will now be victimized emotionally knowing he is not the object of concern as much as the criminal is. I will say though that all this is understandable if these people are or sympathize with Neturei Karta.
Arson does NOT require specific intent, only the general intent to start the fire. Once that is proven one is liable for all, even unintended consequences.
Now being a Minor does qualify for a reduced sentence.
The difference between general intent and specific intent:
General intent – the defendant intended the conduct
Specific intent – the defendant intended the conduct and the result
Intentional and knowledge based crimes are considered specific intent crimes. Here is a (not exhaustive) list of specific intent crimes:
Murder
Attempt
Conspiracy
Solicitation (under modern statutes)
Larceny
False Imprisonment
General intent crimes typically include crimes that are based on the defendant being reckless or negligence. Here is a (non exhaustive) list of general intent crimes:
Manslaughter
Negligent Homicide
Arson
Rape
wow talking about sinking to all time lows. this is in keeping with how they run things in new square my hope is that all of them including the corrupt politicians will one day be held accountable. Shame shame
THE DOUBLE STANDARD ON THIS SITE IS ASTOUNDING! IF THE OFFENDER HAD BEEN A BLACK, HISPANIC, OR SOME LOW LIFE WHITE ANTI-SEMITE, ALL OF YOU WOULD BE SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE; YET, JUST BECAUSE THE OFFENDER AND HIS FAMILY ARE ULTRA-ORTHODOX, IT SEEMS IN TO SOME, TO MITIGATE THE SERIOUSNESS OF THIS CRIME. THE LATTER ATTITUDE IS ALMOST AS BAD, AS THE HEINOUS ACT OF ARSON, WHICH WAS PERPETRATED!
Why are we so busy screaming and ranting about who deserves what?? Hashem is in charge, and if Hashem would want the Boy, or the rebbe or all of new square to Rot in prison then they would, if Hashem wouldn’t want Spitzer to be released then the judge the lawyer the bribers etc could turn themselves upside down and they would never find a way to release him. So just all of you calm down and relax and let the one Above decide who gets what, don’t worry, Not Spitzer not rottenberg not the rebbe andnot any of you holier then thou Vin posters Will Not escape the Bais Din shel malla, we will all have to give din vcheshbon one Day. Wishing both Rottenberg and Spitzer the best of luck.
Yes, everyone knows that spitzer is a innocent brainwashed boy that taught he was defending the ball shem tov and bais chernobil with this act, but isn’t this the exact reason why young Muslims kill anyone they consider unholy?
חסידות is supposed to be a deep guidance and הדרכה in avoidas hashem, where and when did this turn in to a cult that all offspring of the original leader are automatically tzadikim? Are we in north Korea?
How do you justify hurting anyone just because they don’t follow your exact view in yidishkeit ? Even if the rebbe z”l himself also wanted only one minyan, guess what ? He had no halachick right to force it on anyone !
Last time I checked, new square is in the USA not communist Russia where Jews were persecuted for davening in unauthorized locations.
And last but not least, neither spitzer or square learned anything from the jail sentence, yes the have to be more carefull on how to terorize the dissidents… Since we are in gules and the police don’t understand chasidus and derech habaal shemtov… Spitzer still thinks he will sit next to the rebbe in olom habah. (Which might be true, just don’t know on what side of the room…)
No one mentions that this is the same Judge who initially handed down the 7 year sentence, and he is the same who now overturned it, I don’t think there’s anyone atleast here who’s more versed with the ins and outs of this case than he is. None of the writers above have any knowledge in the justice system yet they know well how to judge others handle verdicts and sentences. I would suggest that you atleast do what חז”ל say and practice law according to their dictate of אל תדין את חבירך עד שתגיע למקומו.
It is also worth to mention how fascinated I am to see to what a lovely nation I belong to, such hate I would expect from every Jew hater, it has nothing pure or Jewish in it. And by reading the comments above I now have a better understanding as to the world view over the Palestine-Israel conflict, because when people hate a sect like in this case Skver/Chasidim, they are simply not interested in hearing the facts.
#32 , Your worried about his future wife??? I’m not really worried. His rabbi is taking him to marry one of his grand daughters…. he will look after him with kid gloves
So Spitzer, who arguably was very influenced by the Skverer community in his desire to attack Rottenberg, has matured and repented and will now be released back to that same Skverer community. I liken this to releasing an alcoholic from residential treatment to a bar. Sure, he’ll be sincere in his promise to never drink again, but with the beer in front of him 24/7, who thinks this promise will be kept? Does anyone really think that Spitzer will not continue to be influenced by the very environment that shaped his initial decision to commit the crime?
this bucher dosent belong in jail – his sender the skverer rabbi belongs in jail-whet a gengster
This man is a murderer. Just because his targets didn’t die, doesn’t mean that wasn’t his intention. To burn a family alive requires an obscene level of depravity. This inhuman monster belongs locked in a cage for the rest of his life. This rabid creature saw fit to burn people alive… like Josef Mengele! He is the embodiment of evil and I’m done trying to defend this Skver community from those who want to destroy it. It is time for it to be destroyed and exposed for the sick, violent, oppressive cult it has become. Do as we say or we will burn you and your family alive in their beds??? This is the acceptable level we’re at now? I’m sick to my stomach that this animal will be back on the streets where one day he will live out his sick fantasies of watching Jews burn to death while he celebrates and dances to the sound of their screaming and crying with the rest of this cult.