Yehudah Friedlander, 44, a N.Y. rabbi’s assistant who was charged with molesting a 15-year-old girl on a flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Los Angeles, has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of abuse sexual contact with a minor.
Friedlander, who will be sentenced Jan. 18, faces up to two years in prison.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, during the May 31 flight, Friedlander sat next to the girl, “reached over and placed his hand under the girl’s pants and underwear and touched her genitalia” without consent.
Rabbi Israel Grunwald, who is the head of the Pupa Chasidic community in Borough Park, N.Y., and for whom Friedlander works, initially was arrested after being accused of touching the girl’s breast. Charges against Grunwald were later dropped.
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