U.S. Alleges Rabbi Pursued 30 Teen Boys Online
By Sonja Isger, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Originally published in the Palm Beach Post, Tuesday, May 15, 2001
WEST PALM BEACH — Rabbi Jerrold Levy's computer is talking. And even though the FBI hasn't tracked down every story it's telling, prosecutors told a judge Monday they now believe he used the Internet to contact as many as 30 teenage boys.
Levy's Boca Raton synagogue, one of the largest Reform congregations in Florida, was rocked last month when the 58-year-old rabbi was charged with using his computer to try to lure a 16-year-old to a rendezvous for sex.
Monday, federal prosecutors painted a much darker picture of the former religious leader, claiming he drove to the home of a 14-year-old just a month earlier, took the teen to a secluded place off Forest Hill Boulevard and had unprotected sex. He used computer chat rooms and e-mail to set up meetings with both boys.
He chatted on the computer with as many as 30 teenage boys and kept a diary-like description of each, including notes about whether they were circumcised, their sexual experience and what stories he'd told them about himself, his age and preferences, federal prosecutors told U.S. Magistrate Ann Vitunac on Monday.
Investigators told Vitunac they believe at least one other of the 30 met Levy—a boy they're trying to track down in Boynton Beach. Prosecutors said they're betting the list of victims will grow as the investigation continues.
The prosecutors were there to argue that Levy, a rabbi at Temple Beth El in Boca Raton for nine years, should be kept in jail while he awaits trial.
His attorney, Ed Shohat, wanted something else: to enroll Levy in a psychiatric clinic for people with "this kind of problem."
As Levy's two sons, daughter, now-estranged wife and some dozen other friends and family looked on, Vitunac ordered Levy to remain in jail until Shohat comes back with a detailed treatment plan in "a lock-down facility." Shohat expects to have such a plan in a few days.
Levy, clad in street clothes, feet shackled, appeared subdued. He remained silent during the hearing.
"It must be obvious to everyone—even the casual observer—that this man is ill," said Stuart Grossman, attorney for Temple Beth El. "I'm not sure the penal system is the answer for this."
Grossman, who was in New York City Monday, learned about the hearing after it happened. He said no one he has spoken to at the temple knew of the additional allegations until Monday. "They are stunned," he said.
Despite the growing list of alleged offenses, Grossman said not one member has told Temple Beth El of similar improprieties involving the children of the synagogue.
Levy's downfall began with an alert mom who glimpsed a suspicious e-mail to her son and a vigilant dad who assumed the fake online identity of a teenage boy to catch the e-mailer, sheriff's deputies say. Working with a federally supported task force that tracks Internet crimes against children, deputies and the family built a case against Levy.
They allege Levy used the screen name CoachBoca to set up a sexual encounter with someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy. Levy was arrested April 5 when he showed up at the meeting site.
Though Levy's first arrest came on state charges, he was arrested again Sunday evening on federal charges. The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office could still prosecute Levy later, spokesman Mike Edmondson said. The federal government charges Levy used the Internet to entice a minor into sex and downloaded child pornography on his computer. The maximum penalty for those offenses is 15 years in prison for solicitation, five years in prison for possession and $250,000 in fines.
The case accelerated when task force investigators cracked Levy's password-protected computer files, according to the complaint filed by U.S. prosecutors.
Levy, who used his wife Ruth's America Online account, kept a diary of AOL screen names of boys with whom prosecutors believe he was corresponding. The list is 30 names long and includes details such as each boy's physical description, bits of sexual history with other males and sometimes addresses and phone numbers culled from profiles the boys filled out for AOL.
The first name on the list was a 14-year-old boy from Wellington. Included in that entry, said prosecutor Lothrop Morris, was a note: "Enjoyed our time together."
That prompted investigators to seek the boy out. When they found him at school, he confirmed he had chatted online with CoachBoca on Feb. 11 in a chat room.
The boy gave CoachBoca directions to his house and met him in the driveway at 1 a.m. the following morning. The two drove to a secluded spot off Forest Hill Boulevard where they climbed in the back seat and had sex, the boy told police.
The boy later picked Levy's picture from a photo lineup.
"It is our sense that there are others, we just haven't found them," Morris said.
Not only is Levy a threat to others, prosecutors argued, he's a threat to himself. They said Levy's wife left him and he quit his job. He recently attempted suicide and left a note saying he "had no reason to live," Morris said.
Shohat countered that since his first arrest, Levy has sought counseling and as long as he has no computer, he is not a threat to others. As for the suicide attempt, Shohat says Levy spent several days at Fair Oaks Hospital in Delray Beach and is no longer suicidal.
Shohat said he has contacted a clinic at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and has the names of two other live-in facilities that could help Levy. He'd like to see Levy in one of them while waiting for trial. One of the facilities Shohat named is merely a referral service. But officials there say they may be able to help.
Lynn Porter is executive director of Safer Society Foundation, a Vermont-based organization that helps sexual offenders find treatment.
"This is an emerging field, the treatment of sex offenders," Porter said. "Is there a cure? No. Just like there's not a cure for alcoholism. But treatment gives them tools to deal with it, rather than locking them up where there's no program."
