Following years of legal wrangling, Rabbi Osher Eisemann, the founder of Lakewood’s School for Children with Hidden Intelligence (SCHI) has been granted a new trial after prosecutors’ appeal was denied on Friday morning.
Rabbi Eisemann had been convicted on money laundering and official misconduct after prosecutors convinced a jury that a SCHI QuickBooks entry showed him illegally writing down a loan given to him by the school.
However, prosecutors failed to interview the bookkeeper who made that entry and failed to disclose her identity to the defense team – a violation of the Brady Rule.
After Rabbi Eisemann’s conviction, the defense team managed to ascertain who the bookkeeper was, who then provided sworn testimony that the QuickBooks entry had nothing to do with a loan, but was rather a way to balance the books, which were not being kept in tip-top shape.
Based on this explosive new evidence, Judge Joseph Paone threw out Rabbi Eisemann’s convictions and ordered a new trial. The prosecution appealed, arguing that they were not required to turn over the identity of the bookkeeper to the defense team.
An appeals court on Friday morning unanimously disagreed with the prosecution and accused the prosecutors of violating the Brady Rule.
The appeals court’s ruling means that Rabbi Eisemann is now a free man, while prosecutors have to decide whether to charge him again – this time against the compelling evidence of the bookkeeper who made the entry they solely relied on to convict him.
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14 Responses
That means that the prosecution knew the bookkeeper and never inquired or even worse actually knew that there was nothing illegal about the entry
yet put an individual through h-ll because of their personal hatred on jews. How evil! this is precisely the mo of the evil liberal corrupt justice dept. in Washington
ברוך מתיר אסורים
Justice served. Poor soul. Gifted children shamed
מזל טוב i hope this is the last time that this poor great man has to suffer
Same corruption happened to Rubashkin!
The Brady rule requires prosecutors to disclose material, exculpatory information in the government’s possession to the defense.
The Brady Act requires background checks on firearms purchases.
those prosecutors should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law!
It’s about time that prosecutors and judges be prosecuted themselves for putting people through h3ll
Why should they be worse than gangsters who kidnapped and robbed someone? In fact, in many ways it’s worse, as they prolong the pain and anguish for the victim and their families for years….
Can Rabbi Eissan sue them for reimbursement of all the legal fees that he was forced to pay unjustly?
So the bookkeeper will be indicted with Eisemann for accounting fraud? Is it ok to knowingly make fraudulent accounting entries to balance the ledgers because the books were not being kept in “tik-tok shape”??
Hashem is reminding us that we are still in a real nasty Galus. Some guys out there are acting very cruel and dishonest to us.
Hashem is also reminding us that he is able to send a real quick Yeshuah.
To Gado Adorah:
I spoke with a top notch accounting firm and they said that what the secretary did is 100% legal because she was not trying to save on taxes.
Anyone who does accounting knows that there are errors, as with all human activity. The job of an accountant, or bookkeeper, is to find, and correct the errors. This is part of running a business. Someone the errors are in your favor and someone (usually) they’re not. Corrections in Quickbooks are very typical and if this article is accurate, where a criminal case was brought about over a single Quickbooks entry, the prosecution definitely has some explaining to do.
My guess is that there is more information to this story.
Gadolhadorah, what a vile human being you are. As always, jumping to conclusions and maligning Jews.