A 59-year-old Monsey man faces a court hearing on charges that could put him in jail for violating his probationary sentence for sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy.
The violations include Moishe Turner attending the same wedding as the boy , failing to find suitable full-time work, and not informing his probation officer of a car he was driving, according to the Rockland District Attorney’s Office.
The hearing is scheduled for Oct. 15 before state Supreme Court Justice William Kelly at the Rockland Courthouse in New City.
Turner’s lawyer, Kenneth Gribetz, countered Turner was invited to the wedding and didn’t know the boy would be there, and the event was held in a school closed for summer recess and used as a catering hall.
Gribetz said synagogues commonly use religious schools as catering halls for weddings and other social events during the summer recess months. The wedding Turner was invited to was at 10 p.m. July 25 at a closed school in Kaser, Gribetz said. The young boy had not been invited, he said.
“He didn’t know the child would be attending,” Gribetz said. “They didn’t speak with each other and they didn’t have any contact. ”
Gribetz said Turner works as a job inventory clerk for a business in Hillburn. Turner is charged with second-degree criminal contempt for violating an order of protection by being within 500 feet of the young man and for being on school grounds.
Prosecutor Jennifer Parietti said Turner could get a jail sentence if state Supreme Court Justice William Kelly finds him guilty of the violations after the hearing and incarceration is warranted.
Paretti said six months in jail is possible because that sentence would maintain Turner’s 10-years probation. The lengthy probation is erased with a state prison sentence or more than six months in jail, she said.
Turner pleaded guilty Jan. 18 to second-degree criminal sex act, a charge that could have brought seven years in prison. He admitted having anal and oral sex with the boy on seven occasions during July 2011.
Parietti offered the plea agreement and told Kelly in court that the family didn't want the boy testifying in open court.
Kelly sentenced Turner to 10 years probation and then held a short hearing and classified Turner as a Level 2 sex offender, a designation stating there’s a moderate chance of repeating the crime.
