JUSTICE: SCHI Founder Rabbi Osher Eisemann Granted New Trial After Convictions Are Vacated

In a vital decision rendered today, a judge has granted SCHI founder Rabbi Osher Eisemann a new trial, effectively vacating the two convictions stemming from his February 2019 trial.

The motion for a new trial was filed after new evidence emerged that countered the prosecutor’s allegations that a QuickBooks entry in the school’s accounting books indicted that a $200,000 loan had been criminally erased.

A former bookkeeper at the school came forward to testify that there never was a loan, and the entry was merely a misinterpreted log mistake that was not criminal in nature, and was not directed by Rabbi Eisemann.

The defense also accused the prosecutors of a Brady Violation for with-holding evidence, saying that the prosecutors knew the identity of the bookkeeper before trial — and that it was not Rabbi Eisemann who made the entry — but they withheld that evidence from the defense and the jury.

A final hearing on the motion took place Friday before Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone, who was assigned to the case after the trial judge stepped away in March. During more than two-and-a-half hours of oral arguments on Friday, Judge Paone asked pointed questions as he sought to gain clarity on a complex case he only recently became involved in. Since his first hearing in the case two months ago, attorneys for both sides submitted written briefs, and Friday’s hearing was his opportunity to clarify any doubts he had about the case before he issued his decision on the motion.

During the hearing, the judge pressed prosecutors to explain how they prosecuted Rabbi Eisemann for allegedly erasing a loan when there never was any evidence to the existence of the loan, aside from an entry in a sloppy QuickBooks log.

Furthermore, the judge was surprised that they state never sought to inter-view the bookkeeper who made the entry, and instead relied on the testimony of a detective who looked at the sloppy books and inferred what he thought they were showing. The judge also wondered how a conviction was possible when audit records showed that there was no loan, and actually Rabbi Eisemann was owed money the entire time of the alleged wrongdoing, so it was impossible that any wrongdoing took place. The prosecutor skirted the questions, rather he insisted that the details of the convictions were not important as long as the new testimony did not pass the Carter test — the benchmark for measuring when newly discovered evidence warrants a new trial — and the prosecution insisted that all three necessary components of the Carter test were not met in this case. The defense, however, asserted that all three prongs.

With the convictions dismissed, the prosecutors can proceed to a new trial on the two counts. (The state cannot retry the charges that were vindicated during trial, as that would constitute double-jeopardy.) The defense has asserted that should a jury hear the testimony of the new witness, the case would unravel, as the original convictions were based solely on the testimony of a detective who looked at the books and shared his assessment of what the books indicated, and that testimony is now be-ing challenged by an eyewitness who made the actual entry. It is unclear if the prosecutors will attempt to appeal the decision on the motion.

The judge scheduled a court date for August 9th, to serve as a pretrial hearing for a new trial.

The case is still in a precarious state, and the Eisemann Family has asked that people continue to daven for Osher ben Chana Frumet.