Photo by Peter Carr of The Journal News  Journal Coverage of story here  

July 7, 2011 On Wednesday evening, Aron Rottenberg was invited to deliver the invocation at the Rockland County Legislature meeting. Later in the evening, Legislator Meyers proposed a resolution calling on the FBI to take a leading role in the investigation of the deadly assault on the Rottenberg family within New Square. What followed was an object lesson in the way elected officials stand up to or acquiesce quietly to the voting cartels.

An Opening Prayer
Mr. Rottenberg was invited by Legislator Joseph Meyers to deliver the invocation for Wednesday’s meeting. He offered the following thoughts.

"Good evening. I'm greatly honored to be here tonight and to bring a message of peace and good will. I believe a person should be able to engage in prayer in the privacy of his or her home, or in the synagogue, church, mosque of his or her choice. I thank God for the care I received at the Westchester County Medical Center, for the thoughts and good wishes of the many conveyed to me, and for the prayers of people of good will who condemn senseless violence and are committed to upholding the rule of law. I thank Legislator Meyers for his kind invitation to address you briefly and want to give praise to my family, my brave family, which have stood beside me and helped me recover. For all these, I pray in His name. Amen."

The Chair, Harriet Cornell, thanked Mr. Rottenberg and wished him a successful recovery, and she extended the best wishes of the entire legislative body to his family. Mr. Rottenberg, accompanied by his wife and two daughters then left, and the meeting began.

A Resolution
At the end of business involving the items on the agenda, Legislator Joseph Meyers offered a resolution. He asked the legislators to consider a vote on his formal request to have the FBI take a leading role in the investigation of events surrounding the attack on Mr. Rottenberg. Currently, Meyers said sources tell him that the FBI has taken a "tracking" role, acting as observers of the Ramapo investigation.

Here’s the full text of his proposal:

A RESOLUTION CALLING UPON THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION TO TAKE THE LEAD ROLE IN THE INVESTIGATION OF THE ASSAULT ON ARON ROTTENBERG OF NEW SQUARE.

WHEREAS, on May 22, 2011 Aron Rottenberg who lives in New Square was burned over 50% of his body and has alleged that the incident followed months of intimidation from the leadership within the Village, due to his decision not to pray in the Village’s main synagogue and instead to lead a group of New Square residents in prayer at another location;

WHEREAS, Mr. Rottenberg has alleged breaches of federal law and violation of his civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS, although the Ramapo Police Department has been leading the investigation and one individual has thus far been indicted in the incident, the FBI possesses extensive resources, manpower and experience to investigate violations of federal law and claims of breaches of civil liberties under the difficult circumstances of this case.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that this body does hereby formally call upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation to take the lead in the investigation of the serious allegations arising in this case; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Director of the FBI, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI, New York Field Office, the head of the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division and Congressman Eliot Engel.

The Reaction
Not spelled out in the resolution are all the reasons for taking this investigation out of the hands of the Ramapo Police and also moving the prosecution to a federal court.

Several legislators objected to the resolution, insisting that the investigators currently working on the case are perfectly capable of handling the matter. The investigators are from the Ramapo Police Department. The same group that was incapable of protecting the Rottenberg family despite numerous requests for help from them going back six months. Someone at the department might have read the directive from the Grand Rabbi David Twersky addressing Rottenberg's choice of another house of worship and the consequences outlined by the Rabbi. Officers did write their own reports after responding to ongoing harassment, "smashed car windows; rapping on a bedroom window in the wee hours; broken windows at [Rottenberg's] home; a phone call threatening torment of his daughter in school--her school desk and other belongings then turned up on the front porch; and crowds of men--as many as 300--massed outside the property (Journal News)." Over all of that time, though, no detective was assigned to the case.

The failure of the Ramapo Police to protect the family is now part of the investigation, and Rottenberg’s attorney Michael Sussman told the Journal News that a future lawsuit will contend that "Ramapo police and local government failed to act to protect Rottenberg." So how is the department and its head "perfectly capable of handling the matter"? They will be investigating themselves.

Would there be anyone on the legislative body who would not see a fatal legal conflict of interest here?

Perhaps Legislator Philip Soskin. He offered at Wednesday’s meeting, as part of his objection to the Resolution, these words: "I think it’s a private matter within New Square, and it’s being taken care of by the local police." A very strange confluence of ideas. Is a private matter in New Square subject to state and federal law? Do the guarantees of Constitutional rights reach into the neighborhoods of the village where the chief rebbe issues edicts that carry the force of religious law? Soskin also raised a few eyebrows when he cautioned everyone to remember that Shaul Spitzer (the alleged assailant who has been charged with attempted murder) is "also a victim." (He suffered burns in the attack, as well.) And several times Soskin repeated the exact same phrasing: "We’re not here to incite problems. We’re here to help our constituents."

Looking at a likely, high-profile lawsuit, the Ramapo Police have already put themselves in a very bad place with the very first public statements made by Police Chief Peter Brower at a Ramapo press conference. Brower said "His detectives had not found evidence linking the attacks on Rottenberg's house to the previous protests in the community (Journal News)." In an editorial, The Journal News contradicted this view writing, "Aron Rottenberg of New Square has long complained to Ramapo Police that he has suffered for his decision to pray outside his community's synagogue. Now he is in critical condition with burns over half his body, and an 18-year-old New Square resident is charged with attempted murder, arson, and assault. Federal authorities, better positioned to inquire where local officials will not, should vigorously investigate the attack, and the systematic harassment that preceded it, as a civil rights violation and hate crime." St. Lawrence, Brower’s boss, was also accused by the newspaper of trying to dismiss the facts in the matter. "[A] federal probe is warranted because of the pattern of wrongful conduct alleged and the local officials’ seemingly willful blindness to it. Village leaders and Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence summarily dismissed the notion that Rottenberg was the victim of a campaign of intimidation, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. St. Lawrence, who heads the town's Police Commission, on Monday merely parroted representations from New Square officials that the violence was an isolated incident between Rottenberg and his accused attacker, Shaul Spitzer."

No doubt, these comments will be aired again at a civil trial after the first litigation. And certainly comments like those made by Legislator Soskin might become part of that same record, as well. Perhaps a deposition might manage to get a full explanation of how attempted murder is a "private matter in New Square."

Legislator Connie Coker did point this out, saying the Federal Bureau is responsible for Civil Rights infractions and should therefore be an active participant in the process. She said the freedom of religion and the separation of state and religion are mandated at the highest level of government. She also said she was happy the FBI was involved and would support Meyer’s resolution. The District Attorney, incidentally, has not charged Shaul Spitzer, or any others in New Square, with violations of Mr. Rottenberg’s civil rights. The question of hate crimes is not included in the indictment.

Up until now, sources tell us that the FBI is "tracking" the investigation by the Ramapo Police. They are watching an agency investigate the crime and itself.

There was no vote at the meeting. Instead, Legislator Jay Hood, head of the Public Safety Committee, said he would put the issue on the agenda at the very next meeting. He had some reservations about what the FBI might tell them about the role it has taken, but the resolution will be brought up and discussed.

Two Political Prisms
To get a handle on St. Lawrence’s and Chief Brower’s behavior in this matter, consider the following:

Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence depends on the bloc vote for his political survival. Remove the bloc and he would become the ex-supervisor, and somebody would have the formidable task of having to remove his name from all the signs, ads, brochures, town membership cards, etc. bearing his name. Oh yes, and the clocks would have to be reprogrammed to remove his cheerful greetings on the half-hour. St. Lawrenceville would return to its origins.

But do bloc candidates who are long-time incumbents ever lose the support of New Square? Well, in word, yes. Just ask Michael Bongiorno, or any incumbent who is willing to speak frankly about political currency in Ramapo.

The bloc vote in New Square is controlled by the Grand Rebbe and others within the political core of the village. It delivers 90 to 100% of its ballots. Those who watch election returns on Channel 12 likely have noticed there’s always a surge at the end of election night for candidates like St. Lawrence. Watchers know which districts hold out to the end and why they do it. For one thing, it’s delivered as a taunt to the opposition, but more importantly, it’s also so bloc-favored politicians have no doubts about why they won, and who really owns their seat. You won’t see this in the aggregate returns on the Board of Elections website, but you will see it during election night returns.

So what would happen if there ever were to be a social upheaval in New Square significant enough to loosen the rebbe’s grip on those in the village? What if the residents stopped asking for instructions and took the ballots in November in their own hands? And what if authorities, as part of a follow-up to an investigation, looked in on election centers in New Square to prevent any kind of interference put in voters’ way? Not a situation that would gladden the hearts of leaders either in New Square or Ramapo.

Lawsuits against the town and the village leaders would be enough of a problem to deal with, but add to that federal criminal investigations and possible charges and the system could be really gummed up. So, do you wonder why Deputy Mayor Spitzer of New Square said the incident with his nephew was an isolated incident, and why St. Lawrence dutifully carried that same message back to Ramapo Town Hall?

And there’s a similar straight line that might explain the District Attorney’s reluctance to ask for additional hate crime charges and a full federal investigation.

Here are the numbers from the election when New Square flipped the incumbent, whom they had supported, and invested Zugibe.

In the election for District Attorney in 2003, incumbent Michael Bongiorno defeated Michael Diedrich. The vote totals in the two New Square voting districts (55 and 58) were overwhelming.

Election Year 2003 Michael Bongiorno     Michael Diedrich

New Square District 55       800                    1

New Square District 58       830                    8

Bongiorno had been the DA for Rockland County for 12 years until the election in 2007. And he had enjoyed the kind of support typified by the numbers in New Square in the 2003 election.

In the 2007 election, however, Governor Eliot Spitzer visited New Square officials in their village a few weeks before the election. In the two districts that traditionally respond as a directed bloc vote, there was a 180-degree flip as the Democratic Candidate, Thomas Zugibe, reversed the decade-old alignment.

Election Year 2007 Michael Bongiorno     Thomas Zugibe

New Square District 55        11                   1,088

New Square District 58        11                     899

The county-wide totals for 2007 were Zugibe 33,152 and Bongiorno 31,643. Michael Bongiorno lost by a total of 1,509 votes. The dramatic reversal in New Square guaranteed the win for Zugibe, and many think the shift related directly to bartering done by the visitor from Albany (ex-Governor Spitzer).

You’re a local politician and someone offers you 2,000 votes that provide the margin you need to remain employed--are you going to put a stick in their eye? Well, you should if it’s the right thing to do and is demanded by your oath of office, but that’s not the way it seems work.