Seattle, WA – A man has been found guilty of assault for hitting and fatally injuring a Seattle City Council aide with his station wagon in a West Seattle intersection 14 months ago.
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Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz was convicted Friday by a Seattle Municipal Court jury. The 37-year-old Schwartz was charged under a new two-year-old city law, which says a driver can be found guilty of assault if he commits a traffic infraction and that infraction results in the death of a pedestrian.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine. Sentencing is expected next month.
Twenty-nine-year-old Matthew Nakata suffered severe head injuries in the accident and broken bones and later died at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, as was reported here on Vos Iz Neias. [columbian]
I am ashamed of the congregation that supports this man. He clearly takes NO responsibility for his actions.
What kind of message are they sending to our children and to the non-Jewish community?
They are in denial and are too weak to ask these questions for themselves.
Schwartz has shown us that he is NOT A RABBI.
The rabbi’s conviction has nothing to do with his faith or background: his record behind the wheel speaks for itself. And I agree that if his congregation has enabled his behavior by purchasing a car for him, any further incidents should include them as liable as well.
I definitely do not feel that jail time is at all a suitable punishment for the accident. It is my humble opinion that jail should remain a place for people who behave like criminals and do “Bad” things with intent to harm other human beings physically. However, I do think that a longer period of not being able to drive IS necessary. Perhaps, 5 years (rather than 2); especially given that this is not the first instance of driver disregard.
I agree with the writer who wrote that they should have taken away his driver’s license. He has had eight moving violations in 8 years. He should have had it taken away years ago. If a person can’t drive carefully, they shouldn’t be allowed to drive. Driving is a privilege, not a right.
I would also take issue with his congregants who recently bought him a new car. What he needs are taxi scrips or a chauffeur. They are being complicit.
As for the nonsense about parsing
the word “accident,” if you strike a pedestrian who is walking in a crosswalk, you can’t evade responsibility by using some pilpul. It is your responsibility to see him.
Who knows how the rabbi “feels”.Acting bad is what counts, my friend, and contually acting bad makes feelings rather irrelevant.
Whether or not the action that resulted in the death of a person was intentional may decide the degree of formal law that has been broken. No doubt, Rabbi Schwartz feels terrible for his actions resulting in the death of this man. I am shocked that it is not MANDATORY that when you kill someone as a result of hitting them with your car that you are still allowed to drive. Yes, it is true that Rabbi Schwartz has had several traffic citations. TAKE AWAY HIS DRIVER’S LICENSE FOR GOOD.
The rabbi has a history of multiple traffic violations.He appears to regard them lightly.My friends, when they slam that gate shut, even a rabbi may begin to think he might have done something wrong.
Anon. 2:30PM Speaking of the Crown Heights Riots; There’s one tiny little [but important] detail that was fudged by our dear news media. There was another vehicle (other than MR. Lipsch’s station wagon)involved, driven by a black person,
that pushed the station wagon on to the sidewalk, and the children. Channel 5 News showed it in early clips, which was later edited out, only to show the Black Cop lifting the bikes (bigwheels) of the children over and over again. The car was a Green (olive color) midsize Oldsmobile. No one investigated or even attempted to, inquire about the possibility of THAT car proceeding too soon.
Bigwheel: Yes, but in order for something to qualify as a crime, a person has to set out with the intention to commit that particular crime.
This is just incorrect. Most crimes require mens rea, which means an intent to commit some crime, but there is no requirement that it be the same crime that they ended up committing. Think of felony murder, for instance; now think of this as a sort of “misdemeanor manslaughter”. And there are strict liability crimes that do not require any sort of bad intention.
Do you remember the Crown Heights riots? It was also an accident that ended up killing somebody.
People are only human and unfortunately do cause accidents sometimes fatal. Those who sentenced Mr. Schwartz as a criminal will also find out that they too are only human. What goes around comes around.
Anon of 10:00pm: An accident is not shogeg, it’s oness, and carries no penalty either in halacha or civil law. Retzach beshogeg is manslaughter, or negligent homicide; if there were sufficient negligence to make it one of these he would have been charged with it. Here the legislature has simply renamed an offense, and used “assault” for something that does not meet the dictionary definition; they may as well have called it “brillig”. All it means is that if you break the law and nothing happens you pay one price, but if as a result someone dies then you pay a heavier price. Which isn’t unreasonable, but calling it “assault” just confuses matters.
Yes, but in order for something to qualify as a crime, a person has to set out with the intention to commit that particular crime.
I dont know what the story is maybe he is right maybe not but that dosent take away the fact that this law is stupid, let them look up in the dictionary what accident means and i dont think it describess it as a assault.
even if he kills bshogeg- a accident-he has to go to ari miklat-maybe better now than later
If it was the other way around, if the orthodox jew was the victim, you’d be screaming that the sentence wasn’t severe enough. You’d be screaming that it was murder and one year sentence wouldn’t be enough.
If you break the law, the “accident” is less of an accident, and hence an assault. The fact is, he never really disputed, and did not have much of a defense.
This law dosent make any scense how can one compare a ACCIDENT…to assault??? you may as well remove the word aqccident from the language and replace it with assault . im glad stupid is still part of the language so we can discribe this law as stupid before the word stupid will be replaced with genius.
You’ve had prior experience with the Seattle Courts? Do you have any evidence that the fact this man was Jewish played a part in his conviction? Don’t forget, he killed a political aide…
The bottom line is that people like you will never believe that a Jew can do anything wrong. There has never been a case reported here on VIN that involved a Jew being convicted or arrested that people don’t scream, anti-semitisim.
The bottom line is that an orthodox jew will never get a fair shake in the American legal system, it wouldve been worse if the judge would be jewish then they would have to prove that they are not biased. This is based on prior personall experiance.