Child Abuse Charges Involving Cantor's Family Called 'Typical Case'
By Maryclaire Dale
Originally published by The Associated Press, February 21, 2002
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Allegations that child sexual abuse went on for several decades within the family of a prominent New York cantor may have raised eyebrows among supporters, but such cases do not surprise prosecutors or a psychiatrist who studies violent crime.
''There's nothing unusual,'' Assistant Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said Thursday. ''He's got a big-shot title, (but) this is a typical case.''
On Wednesday, Ferman's office filed charges against Howard Nevison, 61, the longtime cantor of Congregation Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, alleging that Nevison sexually abused his nephew during visits to the boy's Lower Merion home, when the boy was 3 to 7 years old.
Nevison, who denies the charges, was released on $100,000 bond Wednesday evening after a state Superior Court judge reversed a lower court's decision earlier in the day to deny bond and took his passport. He plans to fight extradition to Pennsylvania, his lawyers said.
Lawrence Nevison, 55, who is Howard Nevison's brother and an uncle of the boy, and Lawrence Nevison's son, Stewart, 30, were previously convicted of molesting the boy in unrelated incidents.
A delay in the prosecution of the cantor will be difficult for the victim, now a 12-year-old child actor who has had small parts in a few major studio releases, prosecutors said.
''It's very difficult on the victims, especially if the victim is a child, because as time goes on, a child loses faith that the system is functioning. You and I might not think that six months is a long time, but to a child six months is forever,'' District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said.
Castor, who fears Nevison will flee, criticized Manhattan prosecutors for not supporting his request for a $500,000 cash bail. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is a trustee of Temple Emanu-El, whose 3,000 families include several prominent New Yorkers.
''All I know is an assistant district attorney who I thought was going to represent our interests and was on our team disregarded what we wanted and did what the defendant wanted,'' Castor said.
Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for Morgenthau, said her office repeated Castor's bail request before Supreme Court Justice Arlene Goldberg but suggested a lower amount.
''We thought because he knew about it (the criminal investigation), and had made no attempt to flee, … that we thought a more appropriate bail would be $100,000 plus the passport,'' Thompson said Thursday.
Nevison, whose home number is unlisted, did not return a message left at his office at the synagogue Thursday. His lawyers in New York and Philadelphia also did not return phone calls, but his Philadelphia lawyers earlier said the accusations were old and their client would be exonerated.
The boy, who has been in therapy, testified against Lawrence Nevison at trial in April 2000 but was not ready to confront Howard Nevison until recently. According to prosecutors, Howard Nevison was more violent during the abuse and had threatened to kill the boy if he revealed the abuse.
Both Lawrence Nevison and the boy's father who are Howard Nevisons' younger brothers told police they were abused by Howard Nevison when they were under 10 years old, lending credibility to the boy's statement, authorities said.
''The older child is more often the abuser. Abusers have to get somebody who is weaker,'' said Dr. Paul Fink, a psychiatrist at Temple University who studies violent behavior.
Male victims of family violence often perpetuate the cycle, while female victims more often withdraw, he said.
''If you're abused, there's a lot of anxiety on you to either find some solution, get empowered in some way or act out in some way,'' Fink said.
Howard Nevison faces charges including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault. He could face 27½ to 55 years in prison. He allegedly assaulted the boy on at least three occasions between 1993 and 1997.
The boy's parents sought medical care during that time when their son complained of severe abdominal and genital pain, but no cause was found, and the boy did not disclose the abuse until years later in therapy.
That, too, is fairly common, Ferman said.
''You tell me there are some injuries that nobody figured out. Yes, I see that all the time. You tell me that there are delays. Yes, I see that too,'' Ferman said. ''There's been an enormous change in the last 10 years in the training that doctors receive in child sexual abuse and in the way prosecutors put together a case.''
