Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Samuel Kellner Cleared in Brooklyn Abuse Shakedown Case

Brooklyn prosecutors have moved to dismiss all charges against Samuel Kellner, the Brooklyn man who helped bring abuse charges against other figures in the ultra-Orthodox community.

Kellner, a key figure in several sexual abuse cases, had faced perjury, criminal solicitation, conspiracy and attempted grand larceny for allegedly shaking down suspected abusers.

“After a careful review of the evidence, we have concluded that the charges against Samuel Kellner must be dismissed. We’ve reached this conclusion because we do not believe that we can prove these charges at trial,” District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson said in a statement.

A judge agreed to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning it could theoretically be revived in the future, the Daily News reported.

Kellner was instrumental in bringing to light allegations of sexual abuse by Baruch Lebovits. Lebovits was convicted of molestation and sentenced to up to 30 years in prison in 2010. His conviction was later overturned on appeal.

The case against Kellner was brought after Lebovits’ defense counsel alleged that Kellner had used bribery and extortion in his case against his client.

Since the indictment, two witnesses have provided “inconsistent statements,” making it impossible to prove Kellner’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the DA concluded.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.