Brooklyn D.A. Refuses To Name Child Sex Abusers

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Law enforcement officials, legal experts, advocates and politicians have questioned why Brooklyn’s District Attorney arrested 85 Orthodox adults on child sex abuse charges but refuses to release their names.

In just three years, District Attorney Charles Hynes has arrested 83 Orthodox men and two women on charges including sexual abuse, attempted kidnapping and sodomy.
Unnamed: District Attorney Charles Hynes, center, says that a state law prevents him from giving up the names of those arrested. Legal experts disagree.
Kings County District Attorney's Office
Unnamed: District Attorney Charles Hynes, center, says that a state law prevents him from giving up the names of those arrested. Legal experts disagree.

But when asked to reveal names — even of the 14 abusers who were convicted of sex crimes — Hynes refuses.

“Under the Civil Rights Law of New York State, we cannot release the names of any victim of sexual assault or any information that would tend to identify them,” said a spokesman for Hynes’s office. Yet, on December 14, Hynes issued a press release announcing the sentencing of Gerald Hatcher, 47, to 72 years in prison for raping his girlfriend’s 11-year-old daughter. Hatcher “was living with his girlfriend and her daughter in their Bedford-Stuyvesant home,” the D.A.’s statement said. The neighborhood is largely non-Jewish.


Hynes Refuses To Name Orthodox Child Sex Abusers