A motion requesting a retrial in the Rabbi Osher Eisemann case has been submitted after explosive new evidence has come to light, showing beyond a reasonable doubt that the SCHI founder is innocent of the charges he was convicted on.
First, a little background to the case.
Rabbi Osher Eisemann, the founder of the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence (SCHI), was found guilty on two charges, financial facilitation and corruption of a corporate official, with each charge carrying prison terms of 5 to 10 years. Prosecutors argued that a loan taken from SCHI and repaid by Rabbi Eisemann after 12 days was an illegal transaction, and that the repayment of said loan was used for a secondary crime – canceling out an unrelated debt owed to a private organization that assists with school funding.
The jury in the trial was first instructed to determine whether Rabbi Eisemann was criminally liable for “misuse of public funds.” Acting accordingly, lawyers for Rabbi Eisemann used expert testimony to prove that no public money was used in any transactions, prompting the jury to acquit him of having improperly used public funds.
However, after the defense had already rested their case, the instructions to the jury were changed, and the jury was allowed to consider the loan criminal even if private funds were used. To date, no rational explanation was given as to how a loan of private funds could have been considered criminal.
Being that the defense had already rested, they were unable to provide the very simple defense to this charge, which was that there was no factual or material evidence to suggest that Rabbi Eisemann owed any money to the organization. Rather, the very idea of a debt existing was based on an incorrect understanding of a QuickBooks log on the part of an investigator. There was also no evidence that the debt was wiped out either by Rabbi Eisemann, nor was there evidence to suggest that he instructed others to erase the debt on his behalf.
Following the guilty verdict, Judge Ben Bucca took the extraordinary step of sentencing Rabbi Eisemann only to probation, having determined that the evidence clearly showed that the case was one not criminal in nature, but of “sloppy bookkeeping” that “could have been handled as a
non-criminal, administrative matter.”
However, the prosecution, eager to get another notch on their belts, appealed Judge Bucca’s decision. An appeals court then remanded that case to Judge Joseph Paone, ordering Rabbi Eisemann to be resentenced.
However, new evidence revealed just this week has thrown a grenade into the entire prosecution’s argument, shattering any semblance of wrongdoing on Rabbi Eisemann’s part.
The bookkeeper who made the QuickBooks entry upon which the prosecution rested their argument of criminal activity told lawyers that they are willing to testify that Rabbi Eisemann did not make the entry, and that the log was simply a bookkeeping maneuver to correct a previously made error.
The bookkeeper stated that there had never been any loan to Rabbi Eisemann and that the QuickBooks account into which the entry was made was used to list transactions that SCHI’s bookkeepers were unsure of where they belonged. The allegation of a debt being owed by Rabbi Eisemann was incorrect, the bookkeeper says, with the log instead being meant to help balance the books, which were experiencing inconsistencies due to SCHI’s massive, rapid growth that the bookkeeping department simply could not keep up with.
Further evidence has also surfaced that should assist in acquitting Rabbi Eisemann. Financial audits of the organization conducted on the years of the alleged debt and the years since then were submitted to the Attorney General’s Office, without any issue. Those audits clearly show that Rabbi Eisemann never owed the organization any money and that the allegations for which he was convicted were bogus.
With the new evidence that has emerged, it is likely that Rabbi Eisemann’s sentencing, currently scheduled for July 23rd, will at least be postponed, as the prosecution prepares a rebuttal to Rabbi Eisemann’s request for a new trial.
Once the prosecution completes their rebuttal, Judge Paone will decide whether oral arguments should be heard before he hands down his decision whether to throw out the guilty verdicts and order a new trial, or to rch”l seal the fate of an innocent man facing up to 20 years in prison.
With hashem help Rabbi Eiseman will go free very soon.
Amen Kein Yehi Ratzon
You can look this up:
In 2016 Bucca was found to be unlawfully accumulating pension credits for his city government work over the past two decades, thanks to an investigation undertaken by a the fraud and abuse unit.
In 2019 appellate court judges reversed a decision and sharply criticized the trial court judge who handled the case, Joseph Paone, saying his actions undermined the pre-trial intervention program, known as PTI.
Our AG (appointed by our Governor that we all voted for) knew this would go nowhere but blew public money on this case. He is the one who should be prosecuted for misuse of pubic funds.
Why is this man guilty until proven innocent but murderers or attempted murderers are innocent until proven guilty?
“The bookkeeper is willing to testify”. Was he/she not given the opportunity till now?
Was there a reason that they didn’t come forward until now? I think you need to prove that new evidence was not available earlier. I am hoping this will be the end of this crazy court case against a tzadik!
Where can funds be donated towards legal fees?
rayze.it/pidyonshvuyim
I heard from reliable sources that those individuals know very well that Rabbi Eisemann did nothing wrong and he is 100% innocent, however, there is a lot of pressure from the APP to keep this going. This is such a waste to our hard earned tax dollars. I personally did not take any unemployment, I am working very hard right through this pandemic and my tax dollars are going to outer space.
Rabbi Eisenman has remained focused on helping the community and that probably made some credit hungry officials a bit jealous and instead of learning from him and making his system available throughout the state they are refusing to acknowledge that he identified a serious problem and developed a real solution which deserves to be provided by the government to any other child in this state regardless of their race, gender, religion or political affiliation
Why was such a tzaddik treated so badly? Why wasn’t the bookkeeper contacted 4 years ago? Now the government is going to say that it’s too late, you had this evidence years ago, its not newly discovered. And where was Hatzaddik R’ Osher’s lawyer to submit this evidence during the appeal process, or at a minimum to submit at trial or appeal the audits which R’ Osher gave to the State of NJ years ago? R’ Osher should immediately move for ineffective assistance of counsel, that may get him a new trial! Hashem should help us see yeshuos!