CNN - Case of Rabbi Alan Horowitz, MD

Fugitive child molester in custody

By Chris Browne
CNN
July 9, 2007

Watch Horowitz in custody at Newark airport »

• Story Highlights
• Horowitz is an ordained Orthodox rabbi and a former child psychologist
  
• He was escorted aboard the U.S.-bound flight by a U.S. agent, authorities say
  
• Horowitz was subject of investigations in U.S., Israel; had multiple convictions
  

NEWARK, New Jersey (CNN) -- The most "far-flung and exotic fugitive investigation ever conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service" ended early Sunday with convicted child molester Alan Horowitz in custody on U.S. soil.

Officers from the U.S. Marshals service arrested the 60-year-old at Newark Liberty International Airport after a 15-hour flight from New Delhi, India.

The ordained Orthodox rabbi and former child psychologist was arrested on May 22 at a seaside resort in Mahabalipuram, India, according to parole officer Robert Georgia.

An agent from the Diplomatic Security Service escorted him aboard the Continental Airlines flight, authorities said.

He is being held at a correctional facility in New Jersey and will appear before an extradition judge on July 16th before being taken to New York to face a parole violation charge there.

He also faces a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

A number of Internet tipsters in India were responsible for alerting the Marshal's service to Horowitz's whereabouts, said U.S. Marshal Gary Mattison, who was assigned to track down Horowitz last year.

Horowitz served 13 years of a 10-20 year sentence for child molestation and was released on parole in 2004, authorities said. In June 2006, he fled the country shortly after meeting with his parole officer, setting off the manhunt that involved the Indian police, agents from the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, and U.S. Marshals, U.S. Marshals told CNN.

Horowitz's 1991 conviction was on 34 counts of child molestation in Schenectady, New York.

A dual citizen of the United States and Israel, Horowitz has also been convicted of "perverted sexual practices" in Maryland, where he was found guilty of abusing one of his patients, federal marshals said.

During the 1980s, while he was living in Israel, he was the subject of a police investigation into charges he was sexually abusing his second wife's children, according to the U.S. Marshal service.

He also faced another sexual misconduct investigation while living in North Carolina, authorities say.