Rabbi Facing Tougher Penalties (Sun-Sentinel)
By Kevin Krause, Staff Writer
Originally published in the Sun-Sentinel, May 12, 2001
State prosecutors decided on Friday not to file online solicitation charges against Rabbi Jerrold Levy and instead handed the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which can prosecute on charges with heftier prison sentences.
The state attorney's office made its decision only moments before Levy, former associate rabbi of Temple Beth El in Boca Raton, was to enter a plea to the state charge.
The U.S. Attorney's office already is investigating Levy for possession of child pornography.
The state charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, while the equivalent federal charge of "using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity" carries a maximum penalty of 15 years.
The development comes two weeks after Levy was admitted overnight to a hospital after a suicide attempt. His attorney said Friday only that Levy was "fine."
Levy was arrested April 5 by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and charged under Florida law with soliciting sex from a minor online. The arrest was made after a deputy posed as a 14-year-old boy on the Internet, reports show.
With the charges against him dropped, Levy, 58, can travel freely.
"My client is free to do whatever he wants to do," said his attorney, Edward R. Shohat.
The State Attorney's Office declined to comment on the case. As of Friday afternoon, federal prosecutors had not filed any charges against him.
The investigation is being conducted jointly with members of a multi-agency task force called Law Enforcement Against Child Harm.
Levy was accused of sending sexually explicit computer messages to a teenager and arranging a meeting at Palm Beach Community College in Lake Worth with the undercover deputy, reports show.
The offense carries a five-year statute of limitations.
Levy has since resigned from his post at Temple Beth El., one of the largest reform synagogues in the Southeast United States. He had served that congregation for eight years.
The day of the arrest, the Sheriff's Office seized Levy's computer from his Boca Raton home, as well as several computer disks, and has been examining the hard drive for evidence.
The U.S. Attorney's Office is investigating whether pornographic images found on the hard drive in Levy's computer violate federal child pornography laws.
Federal investigators are involved because the images found on Levy's computer were sent via interstate commerce, meaning they travel electronically through other states.
