Jan. 07--A rabbi from the West Rogers Park neighborhood was sentenced to eight years in prison Wednesday for sexually assaulting a teen he had mentored and tutored, prosecutors said.
Aryeh "Larry" Dudovitz, 48, was convicted in November of sexually assaulting the boy during a Jewish holiday in 2006 after the boy's mother sought out the trusted rabbi to help guide the boy when he began questioning his Orthodox Jewish faith.
Dudovitz appeared before Criminal Court Judge Evelyn Clay at the Leighton Criminal Court Building who sentenced him for the criminal sexual assault which occured when the boy was 15 and he was 39 years old, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said in press release.
At Dudovitz' trial, the now 24-year-old victim, testified that the incident occurred in October 2006. At the time, Dudovitz was a rabbi at the teen's synagogue. Dudovitz was charged in May 2013 after police learned of the allegations.
Both Dudovitz and the teen were in the teen's home celebrating a religious holiday when the assault happened. At trial, the victim testified that after he went to bed, Dudovitz went into his room and assaulted him. After the incident occurred, Dudovitz ran from the teen's bedroom and fled the home.
Several prominent rabbis testified that they responded to a report of the abuse by convening a special session of a religious court.
The assault took place in October 2006, but it wasn't until May 2013 that criminal charges were brought against Dudovitz. The victim's family said that part of the reason for the delay was because relatives wanted the victim to first receive counseling to be better prepared for the emotional strain of a trial.
During the two-hour trial, Dudovitz showed little reaction when the judge made her ruling. The married father of nine had rejected a plea deal that called for five years in prison. He could have faced up to 15 years in prison.
The victim testified that he had begun feeling strange around Dudovitz, who frequently pressured him to go a bath house with him for a ritual purification before prayers. But no sexual wrongdoing occurred until Dudovitz came to the family's home for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, he said.
After singing, dancing and talking for hours with the boy and his family, the night ended with Dudovitz alone with the boy, plying him with beer and vodka until the teen became ill in the sukkah, a hut set up for the festival in the boy's backyard.
The boy testified he went to his bedroom, fell asleep and awoke to find Dudovitz performing a sex act on him. Dudovitz returned to the home the next day to apologize, but the victim said he didn't understand what had happened.
When Dudovitz returned to the house the following December while the teen was again home from school for Hanukkah, the teen realized the rabbi was taking advantage of him.
Dudovitz, wearing a prayer shawl, came into the teen's bedroom and began to embrace him and kiss his neck, the man testified. He kicked Dudovitz out of the house and told his mother what had happened.
"He said, 'Don't ever let (Dudovitz) in our home or near any of the kids again,' " his mother testified at trial. "He was crying ... and he started to tell me what happened."
At a hearing organized by the Chicago Rabbinical Council, rabbis Zev Cohen and Shmuel Fuerst testified that Dudovitz admitted performing the sex act on the teen.
An investigator for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, tipped to the abuse by a psychologist who attended the rabbinical hearing, testified that Dudovitz admitted sexually assaulting the teen to her as well.
The rabbis set up guidelines for Dudovitz to follow, including a ban on being around minors, but prosecutors and one witness said that he didn't follow through.
