New Haven Rabbi, The City's Former Police Commissioner, Charged With Child Rape In Federal Lawsuit

BRIDGEPORT, Conn., May 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A federal lawsuit was filed today against Rabbi Daniel Greer, a prominent member of the Orthodox Jewish community in New Haven and the former New Haven City Police Commissioner.

The other defendants in the lawsuit are Yeshiva of New Haven, Inc. and The Gan School, Inc., both accused of allowing the violent sexual abuse to continue unabated for years.  The plaintiff is Eliyahu Mirlis, who as a child attended the Yeshiva and school, where Greer was the rabbi and school principal.

"Dozens and dozens of times for a period of years, Greer sexually assaulted and abused a young boy in his care.  He was in his 60's.  The victim was a teenager.  The complaint describes a child-molester who, as all child-molesters do, preyed on a vulnerable child," said the victim's attorney, Antonio Ponvert III of the Bridgeport-based firm Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder.

"Greer has never been criminally punished.  He has never taken responsibility.  This lawsuit will force him to answer for his crimes," Ponvert said.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court because the victim resides in New Jersey.

The lawsuit claims that beginning in the fall of 2002 and continuing for the entirety of the victim's sophomore, junior and senior high school years, when he was 15, 16 and 17 years old, "Rabbi Greer repeatedly and continuously sexually abused, exploited, and assaulted him."

Rabbi Greer "forced (the minor) to engage in acts of sex with him, including forced fellatio, anal sex, fondling and masturbation," the lawsuit says.  He frequently gave the youth alcohol and showed him pornographic films at the time of the rapes and assaults, the lawsuit adds.

"During the entire period of Rabbi Greer's molestation . . .  senior administrators and officials of The School, including The School's assistant principal, actually knew and/or should have known that the Rabbi was raping, sodomizing and sexually assaulting, abusing and molesting the minor boy; and they did nothing to stop it," the lawsuit says.

School administrators and employees "failed and refused to report suspected child sexual abuse at The School … to state child welfare and law enforcement authorities," the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, the assaults, each of which often lasted for hours and sometimes the entire night, occurred on school property, at Greer's private residence, at motels in Greater New Haven and in Pennsylvania, and at various area rental properties owned by the schools.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder has offices in Bridgeport, Danbury and New Haven.  The nationally known law firm has achieved record verdicts for people who suffer serious personal injuries or economic harm from medical malpractice, violation of their civil or constitutional rights, dangerous products, negligence, drunk drivers, corporate or governmental abuse and commercial misconduct.  www.koskoff.com.

SOURCE Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder

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