He lost a lawsuit against Yeshiva University’s prestigious all-boys school involving alleged decades-lengthy sex abuse — so his parents are now trying to make an finish-run at justice.
In what their lawyer calls a first-of-its-sort move in the state, Israel and Chaya Gutman are set to file a lawsuit Monday claiming that the embattled Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy in Manhattan is guilty of deceptive advertising by touting the higher college as a protected spot to send youths.
“This is the initial case in which a parent has sued a school for deceptive practices primarily based upon the school’s retention of recognized sexual predators,” said the Florida couple’s lawyer, Kevin Mulhearn, to The Post.
“This is a lawsuit brought by parents who suffered each and every person’s worst nightmare.”
According to the Manhattan Supreme Court suit, “Most savvy Jewish educational consumers… would have under no circumstances imagined that [the school], despite its glowing and positive impressions, would have permitted their son to endure an educational experience… that was consistently threatened, and usually stained, by known sexual predators in high positions of authority.”
The document echoes rampant allegations of sex abuse created against former school officials — from the principal on down — in a earlier $680 million federal lawsuit.
That suit involved 34 unnamed former students who attended the school between 1969 and 1991, including the Gutmans’ son, who is now in his late 40s and lives in Israel.
The lawsuit was dismissed last year by a Manhattan federal judge, who stated the plaintiffs were well previous their three-year statute of limitations in between when the alleged abuse occurred and when they sued in 2013.
Mulhearn is arguing in the new lawsuit that the parents’ statute of limitations for filing suit need to start off when they identified out about the alleged molestation.
The couple says their son only came to them just after a newspaper post surfaced in December 2012 detailing the former students’ allegations.
In the article published in The Forward, then-Yeshiva University Chancellor Norman Lamm acknowledged two rabbis have been permitted to leave quietly right after students accused them of sex abuse.
“The Gutmans could not have possibly known Yeshiva was engaging in this variety of conduct until just after The Forward story broke and their son told them he was 1 of the little ones molested,” Mulhearn mentioned.
The Gutmans are searching for unspecified revenue damages for their pain and suffering and reimbursement for tuition and other costs they shelled out to Yeshiva.
Mulhearn said he believes other parents of molested ex-students at the school will also join the suit.
The Gutmans claim their son in the early 1980s was sexually abused by Rabbi George Finkelstein, a former principal, and Richard Andron, a former university student and buddy of Finkelstein who was permitted to roam freely in the school’s hallways and dorms.
They say their son still suffers from drug addiction, depression and other problems due to the fact he was molested at the college.
Besides Finkelstein and Andron, other ex-students have alleged being raped by Rabbi Macy Gordon, a former teacher. His alleged dirty deeds contain sodomizing one victim with a toothbrush covered in toothpaste in the course of a violent attack in a college dorm room.
None of the boys ever tried to bring criminal charges against everyone because that statute of limitations is 10 years, and they were nicely beyond it by the time they came forward.
Yeshiva University stated in a statement Sunday, “The allegations of abuse have currently been fully litigated in federal court and dismissed on the grounds that the alleged acts occurred decades ago, effectively beyond the statute of limitations … Now, Mr. Mulhearn is attempting a legal maneuver involving 1 set of parents, not any of the alleged victims.
“We will continue to defend against his actions as we focus on enhancing our position as a premier institution for learning.”
