A Brooklyn criminal court jury, after hearing a week of testimony, has dismissed all counts against a Satmar member who had been accused of joining in an attack on a Lubavitcher rabbi a year ago and cutting his beard.
The attack took place outside a Williamsburg factory owned by Joseph Cohen, whose son, David, had asked that Rabbi Pinhas Korf of the Crown Heights section, a Lubavitcher member, come to the factory to teach him Hasidic lore.
The Lubavitch accused Jacob Cohen, the Satmar member, of involvement in the incident, in which five or six men came into the factory, during the teaching session, and criticized Korf for allegedly teaching the boy “misleading” lore. They then pulled Korf outside, knocked him down and cut his beard, a grave insult among Hasidic Jews.
Police went to Jocob Cohen’s home on an unrelated matter and said they needed his picture. They subsequently put the picture into a file of photos of criminals and Korf purportedly picked out the picture of Jacob Cohen as one of his assailants.
Jacob Cohen was arrested on charges of assault, aggravated harassment and violation of Korf’s civil rights. When a grand jury refused to indict him, he was put under arrest by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office and released on his own recognizance. Because of the grand jury’s refusal, the charges against Jacob Cohen were reduced to misdemeanors.
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