By RYAN SIT & YVONNE JURIS
The social worker who went to the police with the teen to report the alleged sexual abuse from a Satmar Hasidic counselor, told the jury on Tuesday that the girl initially had difficulty discussing the events and described her as traumatized and depressed.
Sarah Fried, a social worker who practices in the Yeshiva that the teenage girl transferred to after the scandal, testified that the girl started seeing her in May of 2010, but was unable to discuss any personal matters for air jordan 14 the first six months of counseling. Fried described the teenager as “depressed and anxious,” but did not know the source of her depression. But that all changed in December of 2010, more than six months after the teen had started seeing Fried.
“It took a while to get the words out,” Fried told the jury. The troubled girl first spoke of her sessions with the defendant, Nechemya Weberman, in early December, 2010, alleging that she had been abused. “The following week she disclosed that she had been molested” Fried said, after which the girl bolted from the room.
The teen had been referred to therapists and social workers because of her violation of dress codes and community conduct etiquette when she was 12 years old. Weberman, a prominent Satmar and member of the powerful modesty committee, which enforces and promotes behavioral and ethical standards to those who reside in the community, had previously been hired by the teen’s parents to work with her two older sisters.
Weberman is accused of sexually assaulting the girl, whom he saw four times a week for three years. Some of the charges include touching her genitals and commanding her to reenact porn scenes that Weberman would play on video. Weberman allegedly conducted his sessions with the teen behind a door that was “triple-locked.”
Weberman, who had claimed to be a therapist, has no license.
Defense attorney Michael Farkas asked Fried if the teen’s then boyfriend, who Weberman told the teen’s parents about, could be the source of trauma. Fried rejected the redirected question, saying that breakups were a “common everyday occurrence for teenage girls.”
The defense contends that the girl made up the abuse story to retaliate against Weberman for telling her parents that she had a boyfriend.
Fried and the girl reported the abuse to the police, on February 16th, 2011.
Rabbi Benzion Feuerweger, first cousin of Weberman and a member of the administration at the BCA Yeshiva, testified for the defense.
“Her behavior and modesty is not like most girls,” Feuerweger said. He mentioned that she would often leave the top button on her shirt unbuttoned as indication of how she stood out from the other girls at the Yeshiva. His air jordan 1 femmes testimony was met with laughter that resulted in Judge John Ingram to silence the courtroom.
“I will not tolerate another outburst” said Judge Ingram. “This is not a comedy club.” The case has already attracted its own share of drama and antics, including attempts at bribery. Last week, four men were detained in connection with illegal photos they took of the girl in the courtroom. One of the men, Joseph Fried, is affiliated with the Twitter news feed, Satmar Headquarters.
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