Police tactics used in the arrests of four men charged with soliciting funds for charitable purposes under false pretenses were scored by Magistrate Anna M. Kross when the accused were arraigned yesterday in the First District Magistrate’s Court. The arrests were part of a city-wide campaign against charity rackets instituted by city authorities.
The criticism first arose during the arraignment of Jacob Bienefeld, 53, of 1057 Hoe avenue, The Bronx, said to be a rabbi, head of the Downtown Synagogue at 98 Liberty street, and his seventeen-year-old son, Myron. It was alleged that the names of prominent persons, as well as jurists from other communities were used by the two defendants to influence donations through the telephone and the mail to their so-called charitable organization. It was alleged further that young Bienefeld had accepted a $74 check, signed by Rudy Vallee, from Detective Harry Lichtblau, posing as Vallee’s secretary in Vallee’s office.
At the hearing yesterday Assistant District Attorney John J. Sullivan requested a postponement, pleading that he had just been assigned to the case and that he had not had sufficient time to prepare the evidence. Two postponements had already been granted since the arrests of the Bienefelds on July 29.
Henry Gerson, lawyer for the defendants, asked Magistrate Kross to deny the request for further postponement. “The manner in which the District Attorney’s office and the arresting officers have dealt with this case is a travesty on justice,” Gerson charged.
DESCRIBES ARREST
When the Magistrate asked Gerson to explain his charges the lawyer described the manner in which the elder Bienefeld had been arrested. He stated that a riot squad had raided the Downtown Synagogue on July 29, at which time Bienefeld was apprehended. He was taken in a patrol wagon and later denied permission to communicate with his lawyers, Gerson said.
Detective Lichtblau refuted Gerson’s description of the arrest. Thereupon Magistrate Kross asked the detective what he thought so important in the case to justify the calling out of a riot squad and a patrol wagon to raid a synagogue. Lichtblau defended the raid, stating that the defendant had resisted arrest.
“I am inclined to agree with the defendants’ lawyer,” Magistrate Kross asserted. “It has been my observation that the police department of this city has often exhibited brutality in making arrests. Such brutality is corrupting the efficiency of the police department. They are vicious practices, destructive to a Democratic government. Certainly there was no justification for the excessive measures used
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