Mendel Tevel, who was arrested in Beverly Hills in Oct. 2013 and then extradited to Brooklyn on charges of sexual abuse stemming from an Apr. 2007 incident, pleaded guilty in a New York courtroom before Judge Elizabeth Foley on Apr. 24 to two counts of criminal sexual acts in the third degree, according to Lupe Todd, a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.
In Aug. 2013, the Jewish Journal published an investigative report on Tevel—who is now 31 or 32—in which four of his alleged victims detailed apparent instances of sexual abuse that ranged from about 1995 to about 2004. The ages of the alleged victims ranged from 6 to 14. Allegations against Tevel first became public in October 2012, when Meyer Seewald, the 26-year-old founder of Jewish Community Watch, listed him on the group’s “Wall of Shame”—a website that spotlights people it considers sexual predators within Orthodox communities—after multiple victims had approached him.
Following a sealed grand jury indictment in New York, the Brooklyn D.A.’s office charged Tevel in Oct. 2013 with sexual abuse of one minor, at which point he was arrested in Beverly Hills and held in a Los Angeles County jail for more than a week, then was extradited on Nov. 7 to Brooklyn. He pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of sexual abuse—most were either first-degree or third-degree—and was released on $100,000 bail.
On Apr. 24, after agreeing to a plea bargain with the prosecutor, Tevel pleaded guilty to only two counts of a “criminal sexual act in the third degree,” which, as described by the New York penal code, constitutes anal or oral sex with someone who is either under 17 or is otherwise incapable of providing legal consent. At the time of the incident, Tevel was either 23 or 24 years old. The Brooklyn D.A.’s office said that because the crime was sexual in nature, it couldn’t share more information on the case, including the victim’s identity.
Tevel is the son-in-law of Rabbi Hertzel Illulian, the founder and director of the JEM youth center in Beverly Hills, where Tevel used to work and where Beverly Hills police arrested him in 2013. Tevel married Illulian’s daughter, Bracha, in 2012.
Tevel is expected to appear in court again on June 8 for sentencing by Judge Foley. According to New York guidelines, he could be given from 16 months to up to four years in prison or as little as no jail time, which could be with or without probation.
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I’m happy to hear that justice is being served. I don’t however, understand why it is important to mention his wife and family.
Because they are his accessories. They put him in a position to be around children. They denied his crimes. They brought him into our community. They are culpable.
Absolutely diagusting. Who does he think he is. I hope they put him away and make him register as a sex offender. What’s scary is that I have a 3 year old daughter.
He has no place in the Jewish religion or in any religion.
Shame on him
this is not justice! its a slap on the wrist.
Shame on him. He deserves much worse for what he did to those poor children and all under the Rabbis’ noses. He is a sick man and while in prison (which I hope he ends in) he needs to get therapy and whatever help needed to cure him of his disease which we know the taxpayers of this country will end up paying for. It would really be a huge injustice if he doesn’t spend a few years in prison.
I’m really happy to hear this, but why is he getting such a minimal sentence?
I think the father in law should be investigated too. Why would heven bring this creep into his family with these allegations hanging over his head unless he was a crep too?