In New Jersey, a superseding criminal complaint (
full text) was issued yesterday in
United States v. Epstein,(D NJ, Oct.10, 2013), adding 6 defendants to the 4 previously named (see
prior posting) in a federal kidnapping case against men who allegedly operated an arrangement under which recalcitrant Orthodox Jewish husbands were seized and physically threatened or injured to force them to grant a religious divorce (
get) to their wives who had already obtained a civil divorce decree. The 6 additional defendants are alleged to be the "'tough guys' and/or witnesses who participate in the actual kidnapping and assault of the recalcitrant husbands...." The
Newark Star-Ledger reports:
Most of those arrested were taken into custody at a Middlesex County warehouse Wednesday night — some wearing Halloween masks and one in a Metallica T-shirt — as they waited to grab a supposed victim....
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said at least one of those charged admitted he had participated in similar kidnappings in the past and investigators believe there may have been as many as several dozen assaults conducted by the same group over a period of many years.
Failed Messiah reports that more arrests are likely to follow "as dominoes." Meanwhile,
Haaretz yesterday carried an interesting op-ed titled
Rabbis who beat men into divorcing their wives: villains or heroes?. [Thanks to Steven H. Sholk for the lead.]
