Sharon Rabbi Was Set Up

Related: The Starr Rabbi of Sharon 

I take back the condemnations; he's the victim of an extortionist now.

"Rabbi allegedly misused funds to keep liaison with teen quiet" by David Abel | Globe staff   May 20, 2014

STOUGHTON — After allegedly starting a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male two years ago, Rabbi Barry Starr paid as much as $480,000 to buy the silence of a Milton man who professed to be the teenager’s brother and who threatened to expose the relationship, according to sworn statements released Monday in Stoughton District Court.

Oh, no. My initial suspicions have been confirmed, only worse. I thought it was an adulterous affair; never did I imagine it was this.

Starr, who developed a national reputation as a leader in Conservative Judaism in his 28 years as rabbi of Temple Israel of Sharon, allegedly transferred money from the rabbi’s discretionary fund to the alleged extortionist. That man — identified in court documents as Nicholas Zemeitus, 29, of Milton — told authorities the rabbi suggested altering checks written by elderly congregants to increase their value, according to documents that police filed in court while seeking search warrants.

That is criminal fraud!

Rabbi Starr also sought and received tens of thousands of dollars from longtime congregants and used that money to assure the man’s continued silence, according to court documents. Many of those congregants revered the rabbi and thought of him as family, including an elderly Holocaust survivor who is now suing his former spiritual leader.

Among those approached by Rabbi Starr for money before he resigned was Arnie Freedman, the temple’s president. The rabbi told Freedman several weeks ago that he was in trouble and needed to borrow $50,000, according to the documents.

“Starr would not describe the trouble he was in,” Scott Leonard, a detective in the Sharon Police Department, wrote in his statement to the court.

Freedman pressed the rabbi for more details about why he needed the money. “Starr told Freedman that he [Starr] got involved in a romantic relationship with a younger man, who he [Starr] met online and that the man’s older brother was now extorting money from him,” Detective Leonard wrote. “Starr said the man was threatening to make details of the romantic relationship public.”

Oh no! No! NO!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

In an e-mailed statement Monday, an attorney representing Starr said that the rabbi had fallen victim to a “vicious extortioner.”

Yeah!

The detective said the allegations supported potential charges of larceny by false pretense, forgery, and forging a document. It was unclear from the documents whether Starr or Zemeitus, or both, could face those charges. Both of their homes were searched. 

I will bet nothing will come of this.

According to the court documents, Starr told Freedman that the alleged extortion by Zemeitus started shortly after the rabbi’s relationship began with the youth about two years ago. It was unclear how long the relationship lasted. The teenager’s name was not in the documents. The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16 — the teen’s age when the relationship allegedly started, according to the documents. 

Meaning IT WAS CONSENSUAL and NOT -- I repeat NOT -- statutory rape!

Zemeitus could not be reached by telephone Monday. A woman answered the door Monday night at the Milton residence listed in public records as Zemeitus’s home and said he would not be home until later in the evening. The woman declined further comment.

In a conversation he had with Detective Leonard and State Police Lieutenant David McSweeney, Zemeitus said he met the rabbi on Craigslist, a website known for enabling casual sexual encounters, according to the court documents.

And think of this, folks: the NSA has been picking up every scrap of communications for at least six years now and they can never find(!?!) the sex perverts or the hackers and all the rest. Makes you really, really wonder. 

All I have is this rotten, one way blog of information dissemination and analysis. 

Sorry I'm not sexier, even more so if I had the balls to post a photo of my camera-breaking mug.

After exchanging e-mails, the two met at Starr’s home in Sharon, where he lived with his wife and two children. 

I don't like where this is going.

Zemeitus told investigators he thought he was going to meet a 55-year-old woman and became upset when he arrived at the rabbi’s home and found a bearded man in his 60s. 

Oh, no! Oh, no!

“Zemeitus told us that he got angry as Starr lied about his true gender and appearance,” Leonard wrote. “Zemeitus told Starr that he was going to inform Starr’s wife about the meeting and that he would be outed.”

Maybe he's transgender, and if he feels like a 55-year-old woman don't bully him.

In response, the rabbi offered to pay Zemeitus $100 to keep the meeting quiet, Leonard wrote in his report.

Kinda cheap, huh? Not to $terotype or anything, but c'mon, $100?

It was not clear from the documents how the seemingly chance meeting supported Zemeitus’s story that he was acting on behalf of his younger brother. It remained unclear whether Zemeitus is in fact the teenager’s brother.

So it all could be a libelous lie, but if so, why did the rabbi pay the blackmail? Better get the NSA to look over those records.

Zemeitus told investigators he met Starr several times over the past two years, including at Temple Israel, and that the money was exchanged to buy his silence. He told police he estimated receiving $200,000 from the rabbi; Starr told Freedman he paid Zemeitus an estimated $480,000.

The inflation is for the in$urance claim.

Over the past month, said Zemeitus, Starr gave him eight checks belonging to the temple or the rabbi’s discretionary fund, which is often used to help congregants in need, and told Zemeitus to change the dollar amounts and deposit them into his bank account.

Well, they had a congregant in need.

“Starr told him that the checks came from people from within the temple who were elderly or people who would not know that the check denominations were altered,” Leonard wrote.

:-(

Zemeitus allegedly added two zeros to the end of an $18 check — a spiritual number in Judaism that represents life or good luck — written by a congregant, according to court documents. Another $18 check left in the temple’s donation box by a woman was also altered and cashed, made to look as if it had been written for $1,800, as well, Leonard said.

Zemeitus also used one of the women’s checking account numbers to pay several bills, including $148.54 to T-Mobile, $540.63 to Progressive Direct Insurance, and $537.32 to NStar, Leonard wrote.

The utility account was in the name of Alexa Anderson, who lives at the same address as Zemeitus.

“Zemeitus told us that Starr had made those payments for him and Anderson,” Leonard wrote.

Officials at the Norfolk district attorney’s office declined to comment.

Thomas Hoopes, a Boston attorney representing Starr, described his 64-year-old client as a victim.

“The rabbi, his family, and his community have been the victims of a vicious extortioner,” he wrote in an e-mail. “The case is as simple and as awful as that.”

Yup! 

Notice the sex stuff has gotten lost in the $huffle of money!

He added: “Law enforcement will hopefully determine the truth of any story Zemeitus has made up and assess any other allegations.”

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! 

Better head into the synagogue and pray for that one.

Last week, Starr was also accused of failing to repay a $50,000 loan he received from Morris Kesselman, an 87-year-old congregant who secured a lien on the rabbi’s home.

In a lawsuit filed in Stoughton District Court, Kesselman, a Holocaust survivor, said Starr came to his house in Sharon last fall and pleaded for the money, saying he had “a severe personal problem.”

This month, hundreds of members of the Conservative temple received a letter from the rabbi, in which he acknowledged his wrongdoing. “Sometimes people who try to be good people do things that are wrong, hurtful, and shameful,” wrote Starr.

What were you doing trolling online at Craig's List?

Congregants who attended a meeting last week were still struggling to comprehend the allegations and sudden resignation of someone they have looked up to for so long.

I feel so sorry for them.

 I'm glad I do not look up to anyone. When it comes to $cum leaders, I look down. I like to think for myself is the problem.

In a statement, Freedman, the temple’s president, said the congregation “has been profoundly troubled and upset by these events.”

“We are cooperating fully with law enforcement officials,” he said. “At the same time, we are endeavoring to respect the rabbi’s request for privacy. We have come together as a community, united in our faith in God and our shared sense of sadness.”

No anger at getting ripped off?

--more--"

"Exposure threats e-mailed to Sharon rabbi; Liaison alleged, cash demanded" by David Abel and Ellen Ishkanian | Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent   May 21, 2014

STOUGHTON — A series of menacing e-mails between Rabbi Barry Starr and a Milton man suspected of blackmailing him reveals the hardball tactics the alleged extortionist used, threatening to expose the rabbi for having an alleged sexual relationship with a teen described as the man’s brother.

The e-mails, contained in court documents released Tuesday, are the first of hundreds the two traded between December 2011 and April 2014, a source familiar with the investigation said. Starr may have ultimately paid as much as $480,000 to buy the man’s silence, according to court documents.

The documents show that authorities discovered e-mails on an office computer the rabbi used at Temple Israel of Sharon, where Starr presided for 28 years and built a national reputation as a leader in Conservative Judaism.

The rabbi, who resigned this month, also engaged in “extensive” browsing of the classified websites Backpage and Craigslist, where he viewed advertisements for female and transsexual escorts, according to documents related to a search warrant that were released in Stoughton District Court.

No!

A lawyer representing Starr has described the rabbi as a victim. The alleged extortionist, making his first public remarks in a brief interview Tuesday, said the case contains misunderstandings.

What a spinner!

In what was apparently the first e-mail to the rabbi, on the morning of Dec. 28, 2011, Nicholas Zemeitus, the 29-year-old alleged extortionist, demanded the rabbi read his message “very carefully.”

“It’s come to my attention that you have been doing some things that are harmful to some teenage boys and I have found that you have done this several times,” he wrote. “I am the older brother of a young boy you met recently.”

Zemeitus, writing to the rabbi’s e-mail address at the temple, said he had come across e-mails Starr exchanged with his brother while fixing the teen’s laptop, which he said included photographs of Starr engaged in sexual activity with the teen in the rabbi’s bedroom. He said his brother was younger than 18 years old.

“I went through theses [sic] e-mails and learned that you lure boys in with the promise of paying them a hundred bucks to let you proform [sic] various sex acts on them,” Zemeitus wrote. “That made me so upset and even sick to my stomach.”

I don't  even want to know what they are, but I think I can guess. 

Then there is that perverse ritual where the rabbi sucks the cut penis of a baby boy during the bris circumcision.

Zemeitus said he learned that Starr was a high-profile rabbi, a man long revered in his community. “That’s when I was really shocked and blown away,” he wrote to Starr, recounting details from the rabbi’s publicly available biography, his wife’s name, and his home address and phone number. 

Me, too.

Then he issued his threat: “If you do not follow my directions and do as I ask, I will bring all this info to the attention of not only the police and courts to have you prosecuted . . . I will also print out these e-mails and show them to everyone involved with your past . . . and everyone that you know from Sharon.”

He threatened to go to the media and added: “I will bring them and post them on the walls of your temple.”

Zemeitus insisted the rabbi respond immediately for directions about how “you can save yourself and make all this go away,” he wrote. “I will give you one chance to fix this.”

Less than three hours later, Starr wrote back. “Yes, I got your e-mail. I have never knowingly corresponded to any young boys under 18, but if that happened, it was not my intention. Tell me what I can do?”

Though Zemeitus has asserted in the e-mails that he is the brother of the teen allegedly involved with the rabbi, no independent confirmation of that assertion has emerged.

Thomas Hoopes, a Boston attorney representing Starr, described his 64-year-old client as a victim this week. He declined to comment Tuesday about the e-mail exchange.

At his home in Milton, Zemeitus would answer only a few questions. At first, he told a Globe reporter that he did not know Starr and said he did not have a younger brother. Then he said he once bought a cellphone from the rabbi.

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding here,” he said, before closing the door.

In an e-mail sent Tuesday to congregants, Arnie Freedman, Temple Israel president, called the allegations about the rabbi “so painful and deeply upsetting.”

“At no point during my conversations with the rabbi did he tell me anything as to the nature of his relationship, which seems to be at the heart of all of this,” said Freedman, who referred the matter to attorneys and eventually law enforcement.

The Norfolk district attorney’s office is investigating the alleged extortion but declined to comment.

In court documents released Monday, Sharon detectives said the extortion allegations and assertions that checks to the rabbi from congregants were altered to increase their value supported potential larceny and forgery charges.

It was unclear whether Starr or Zemeitus, or both, could face charges.

While the rabbi ultimately acknowledged having an extramarital affair, Freedman in his Tuesday e-mail to congregants said Starr never disclosed the gender or age of the person. That assertion appeared to contradict documents released Monday in which a Sharon detective stated in a sworn statement that Freedman said the rabbi had a romantic relationship with a younger man.

Still lying to the congregation, 'eh?

“I know that no such information was passed along to investigators by anyone connected with Temple Israel and the court documents indicate that it came from the extortionist.”

Then it must be the police who are lying.

He added: “As we search together for what to think and do, let us begin with how little we know, and the fact that the present public accounts are rife with discrepancies and inconsistencies. In terms of the accusations . . . we do know that the allegations come from a person of questionable character, who appears to have committed crimes in relation to these matters himself. Does that change the situation? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. I don’t profess to know.”

Notice how the SEX with a 16-YEAR-OLD is GETTING LOST in all this?

In his answer to Starr’s e-mail in 2011, Zemeitus wrote a few minutes later: “You are gonna make a generous donation for his college tuition,” referring to the teen.

He told the rabbi to gather $13,500 in $100 bills and leave them in an unmarked manila envelope that evening in an undisclosed public place. He also told Starr that his godfather was a State Police detective and provided him information about the rabbi.

Then he is in trouble. 

Sharon looking a lot like New Jersey.... 

“Once I pick it up and confirm it’s all there, I will e-mail you one last time to tell you I deleted all e-mails and pictures at which point this will all go away,” he wrote.

He added: “This is your one and only chance and warming [sic] to seize [sic] all contact and harming underage children and suggest that you take this as a big wake up call.”

The next morning, the rabbi responded: “This is a great deal of money and it will take me some time to raise it. I know I screwed up but I need to put this behind me. And again I never did anything to underage boys but I suppose you don’t believe that.”

He was only 16.

A few minutes later, Zemeitus wrote: “Don’t insult us further as you have done countless times.”

The rabbi’s response to that e-mail was not included in the court records. After apparently receiving an answer from the rabbi, Zemeitus told him to meet him at noon and asked whether he understood the directions.

“I will have the entire amount today,” the rabbi responded. “After you receive it, I expect that we are done with this as I am done with Craigs List [sic]. There will [sic] 13,500 in the envelope. I will not be able to e-mail you until I return home. You will take the money and delete the material you have.”

The threats and exchange of money, however, did not end until several weeks ago, after the rabbi sought and was denied a loan of $50,000 from Freedman, according to court records.

--more--" 

Comparing the change in tone of coverage regarding this perversity and case and the Catholic abuse scandal, you can pretty quickly see an institution that rallies to protect one of its own.

Also see: 

The Fondling Friedmans

Rabbi Wriggles Out of Jail

It won't be so bad even if he does go.