Achi Ben Shalom not guilty of lewd act
Achi Ben Shalom was acquitted Wednesday, Aug. 22, of committing a lewd and lascivious act on a girl younger than 14. However, the Israeli-born musician was found guilty of a count each of battery and assault.
Music teacher and showman Achi Ben Shalom not guilty of lewd act
By Joe Eskenazi - staff writer
Jewish News Weekly of Northern California
Friday August 24, 2007
Achi Ben Shalom, a longtime music teacher at Albany’s Tehiyah Day School and a fixture at Bay Area bar mitzvahs was acquitted Wednesday, Aug. 22, of committing a lewd and lascivious act on a girl younger than 14.
However, the Israeli-born musician was found guilty of a count each of battery and assault — meaning that the jury found inappropriate touching did occur, though of a non-sexual nature.
“I definitely feel very relieved at the situation,” Ben Shalom told j. “It could have been much worse, of course.”
“I am trying to go back to my life.”
Just what that life will be, however, is yet to be determined. Ben Shalom acknowledged that he won’t even ask for his old job back at Tehiyah. And, though he was cleared of any sexually related wrongdoing, the stain of the accusation doesn’t figure to recede anytime soon.
When asked if Ben Shalom could reintegrate himself into the East Bay’s tight-knit Jewish community, his lawyer, Harold Rosenthal, replied “I don’t think it’s possible, quite bluntly.
“I think the stigma of all this will follow him around to some degree. That’s a tragedy, but that’s what happens.”
J. was unable to reach prosecuting attorney Colleen Gleason. While Rosenthal will ask for probation at Ben Shalom’s Sept. 14 sentencing hearing, he figures Gleason will fight him on this — she asked Ben Shalom be remanded into custody following Wednesday’s trial as a result of the battery and assault counts. Her request was denied.
Rosenthal said first-time offenders charged with assault or battery rarely get jail time, though the maximum sentence is up to a year for each count.
Ben Shalom was arrested in November of last year after a former student, now 11, charged that he touched her private parts on five separate occasions in his Tehiyah classroom starting Oct. 11 of last year.
Ben Shalom does not deny touching her stomach on one occasion — he said he was applying a massage technique to relieve a stomachache — a technique that he used on his own two children.
Yet, in what Rosenthal believes was one of the keys to the acquittal, on one occasion when the accuser claims she was with Ben Shalom he was actually in Washington, D.C., on a school trip.
Ben Shalom does not currently have an income and said that he doesn’t know what he will do next, career-wise.
“I am worried in finding a job, especially with all the things that went on the Internet,” he said.
“I don’t plan to move away or anything. My option is to go on with my life as much as I can.”
Music teacher and showman Achi Ben Shalom not guilty of lewd act
By Joe Eskenazi - staff writer
Jewish News Weekly of Northern California
Friday August 24, 2007
Achi Ben Shalom, a longtime music teacher at Albany’s Tehiyah Day School and a fixture at Bay Area bar mitzvahs was acquitted Wednesday, Aug. 22, of committing a lewd and lascivious act on a girl younger than 14.
However, the Israeli-born musician was found guilty of a count each of battery and assault — meaning that the jury found inappropriate touching did occur, though of a non-sexual nature.
“I definitely feel very relieved at the situation,” Ben Shalom told j. “It could have been much worse, of course.”
“I am trying to go back to my life.”Just what that life will be, however, is yet to be determined. Ben Shalom acknowledged that he won’t even ask for his old job back at Tehiyah. And, though he was cleared of any sexually related wrongdoing, the stain of the accusation doesn’t figure to recede anytime soon.
When asked if Ben Shalom could reintegrate himself into the East Bay’s tight-knit Jewish community, his lawyer, Harold Rosenthal, replied “I don’t think it’s possible, quite bluntly.
“I think the stigma of all this will follow him around to some degree. That’s a tragedy, but that’s what happens.”
J. was unable to reach prosecuting attorney Colleen Gleason. While Rosenthal will ask for probation at Ben Shalom’s Sept. 14 sentencing hearing, he figures Gleason will fight him on this — she asked Ben Shalom be remanded into custody following Wednesday’s trial as a result of the battery and assault counts. Her request was denied.
Rosenthal said first-time offenders charged with assault or battery rarely get jail time, though the maximum sentence is up to a year for each count.
Ben Shalom was arrested in November of last year after a former student, now 11, charged that he touched her private parts on five separate occasions in his Tehiyah classroom starting Oct. 11 of last year.
Ben Shalom does not deny touching her stomach on one occasion — he said he was applying a massage technique to relieve a stomachache — a technique that he used on his own two children.
Yet, in what Rosenthal believes was one of the keys to the acquittal, on one occasion when the accuser claims she was with Ben Shalom he was actually in Washington, D.C., on a school trip.
Ben Shalom does not currently have an income and said that he doesn’t know what he will do next, career-wise.
“I am worried in finding a job, especially with all the things that went on the Internet,” he said.
“I don’t plan to move away or anything. My option is to go on with my life as much as I can.”
posted by Jewish Survivors at Friday, August 24, 2007
2 Comments:
How come your article doesn't mention that he also won the appeal for the lesser conviction?
No follow-up articles seem to have been written...?
http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-06-11/bay-area/17207750_1_sexual-intent-appeals-court-touching
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