Prosecutors in the case of SCHI founder Rabbi Osher Eisemann asked the judge for more time to answer after fielding numerous hard-hitting questions from a judge during a hearing last week.
Judge Joseph Paone, who was recently assigned to the case after Judge Ben Bucca stepped away, granted the prosecution time to submit written responses, after they were unable to give adequate answers to some of the questions from the judge.
The hearing revolved around a motion filed by the defense asking for a new trial based on new evidence. Should the judge grant the motion, the two convictions would be vacated and prosecutors will be able to bring those counts to trial again, if they choose to do so. Should the judge reject the motion, the case would proceed to resentencing R”L, with the convictions carrying up to 20 years in prison.
Among the inquiries the judge asked prosecutors at the hearing Friday was to explain how Rabbi Eisemann’s convictions – each which hinged on other counts in his indictment – were able to stand after the jury cleared him of the primary counts. During the hearing, prosecutors said that the two convictions hinge on each other, but the judge called that bootstrapping, noting that they should’ve fallen away after the jury cleared him of any actual criminal activity.
“I just don’t understand how it is that we’re here,” the judge asserted.
After reiterating the question, the lead prosecutor could not supply a response. “I’m not really sure how to answer Your Honor’s question,” he said.
The judge also pressed lawyers on the evidence of the existence of a loan, something crucial to the prosecution’s allegations.
“What is the proof of an actual debt?” Judge Paone asked them. “No proof was presented to the jury of an actual debt?”
Before concluding the hearing, Judge Paone ruled out the need for an evidentiary hearing, in which a former bookkeeper would’ve testified in person about an accounting entry at the center of the prosecution’s criminal theory. The bookkeeper previously submitted a written certification asserting that the entry was not made or directed by Rabbi Eisemann, and that it did not represent an actual debt, rather it was a bookkeeping entry in an unrelated log. Judge Paone noted that it was not his place to judge the credibility of the testimony, rather it was something a jury should decide, should he order a new trial.
“I’m obligated to give every reasonable inference to the truth [of the testimony], and to leave it to the jury to determine if they should believe it or not,” he said.
Prosecutors then asked for time to submit written briefs with answers to the questions they couldn’t answer, and the judge acquiesced. A Zoom meeting is set for Monday, during which a briefing schedule will be agreed on.
The Eisemann Family asked community members to accept upon themselves to say one or two kapitlach of Tehillim each day for Osher ben Chana Frumet until a decision is rendered, as the next weeks are a crucial period in the case.
{Matzav.com}
It’s crazy what this tzaddik is going through. And it’s nuts how they can prosecute him for years, announcing that he stole money from the government and the school, but when the jury says that he didn’t do any theft, not only don’t they apologize, they instead push to lock him up for longer than the judge ruled.
And Governor Murphy allows this injustice to take place. And if the suspect was a black………….
Why in the world did the judge not throw out the case?
“Prosecution – you need time??? If you don’t have what to say, case closed!”