Rabbi Sues Over False Charges of Molestation

A Los Angeles rabbi against whom child molesting charges were filed and later dismissed filed a $10-million damage suit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Rabbi Melvin Teitelbaum claims in his suit that the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles and the family that accused him conspired to have him arrested and charged.

The agencies knew, the suit asserts, that incriminating statements against Teitelbaum “emanated from a family with a multitude of emotional and family problems.”

According to the suit, the family of the purported victim was in therapy with the agencies and had “an extensive history of emotional, sexual, drug, religious and family problems.”

Teitelbaum also names as defendants some local news media--including The Times, the Daily News and several radio and television stations--for reporting the charges that he contends constitute libel and slander.

Ridicule, Obloquy

Teitelbaum, 34, who is also an attorney, says in the suit that this has caused him to be the object of ridicule and obloquy and has cost him $50,000 in legal expenses to defend himself and $100,000 in lost earnings.

Charges against the rabbi, who served the Ahavath Israel Congregation in Hollywood between 1976 and 1982, were dismissed last Dec. 21 at the request of a deputy district attorney, who said new evidence led her to question the story told by his accusers.

The charges stemmed from a 1983 report by a 13-year-old boy who claimed that Teitelbaum orally copulated him during a visit when the boy’s parents were not at home. The boy’s sister later told authorities that her brother told her about it and that she wrote an account of his story in her diary.

Later, confronted with evidence that placed Teitelbaum elsewhere at the time of the alleged incident, the siblings changed their story, a move the prosecutor said was “devastating” to their credibility.