Challenge to Rabbi’s Trial Rejected : Courts: Judge in money-laundering case discounts defense claims of ‘outrageous’ and anti-Semitic behavior by FBI agent and informant.

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday denied a request to dismiss money-laundering charges against an Orthodox rabbi because of alleged “outrageous government misconduct” by an FBI agent.

Stephen D. Miller, Rabbi Abraham Low’s lead lawyer, maintained that the government used an informant motivated by religious and racial bias and by “personal animosity” against Low.

Miller also said the FBI included information in an affidavit that agents knew was untrue and accused the bureau of attempting to intimidate a potential defense witness in the case, which has generated considerable interest in the city’s Jewish community.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Leslie A. Swain conceded in court that informant Christopher Golasz had made a number of “distasteful” and “disgraceful” comments. She also acknowledged that FBI agent Cameron Saxey made obscene remarks to an official of Low’s synagogue. But she said that neither Saxey nor anyone else from the government had done anything to warrant dropping the charges against Low.

After a two-hour hearing, U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi agreed that even if all the charges leveled by Low’s lawyers were true, they would be insufficient to warrant dismissal. The judge also rejected a defense request to conduct a special evidentiary hearing on the allegations.

Claims of “outrageous government misconduct” are granted only in the narrowest of circumstances where the government’s conduct “shocks the conscience” because brutal or psychologically coercive methods are used against a defendant, according to the leading case on the issue in the U.S. 9th Judicial Circuit, which includes Los Angeles.

According to federal court documents, tapes obtained by defense lawyers from the U.S. attorney’s office during pretrial proceedings reveal that Golasz used an anti-Semitic slur against Low and declared that the Torah “is a roll of toilet paper.” He also referred to “the nigger” when talking about Sharlesetta Brown, another defendant in the case.

“These comments continued unabated throughout the course of the investigation without any indication that the government attempted to stop this offensive conduct,” Miller said.

He urged Takasugi to hold a hearing where agent Saxey would be required to explain how he supervised Golasz and why Golasz was not discharged as an informant.

A former federal prosecutor, Miller took great pains to say that he was not accusing the U.S. attorney’s office of wrongdoing, but he said: “There comes a time to speak out. . . . I’m deeply disturbed by this case.”

Prosecutor Swain took considerable umbrage at Miller’s contentions:

“I’m married to a Jewish man, I have two Jewish children, my children go to a Jewish school and my co-counsel in this case is Jewish. . . . If at any moment I thought this investigation was motivated by anti-Semitism, I would have brought it to a halt.”

Moreover, Swain said Golasz was not the driving force behind the case and that the government had ample reason to investigate Low despite what Golasz told federal agents after he became an informant while in jail on other charges in 1991.

She said that when the money-laundering probe began, Low already was the subject of two other federal investigations--one involving a $189-million check kiting scheme and the other involving a “promissory note scheme in which the Bank of America might lose $70 million.”

Monday’s hearing added an unusual dimension to the case against the 42-year-old rabbi who, before his arrest and indictment in January, had a reputation for doing good works in the Fairfax area. Sources have speculated that Low ran afoul of the law in an attempt to recoup funds for his ultra-Orthodox Mogen Abraham synagogue after losing millions in ill-timed real estate investments.

Low, financial consultant Alan Weston and Brown were arrested Jan. 11 and indicted two weeks later on charges of bank fraud, a $2-million money-laundering scheme and other crimes said to involve a “holy network” of accounts held by religious charities. The indictments allege that Low told an undercover FBI agent posing as a narcotics dealer that he could launder as much as $5 million a week through a network of couriers who would transport drug-tainted money.

Low and Brown are free on bail. Trial is set to begin July 28. Weston has pleaded guilty and agreed to testify for the government.

Swain said the case was launched when Home Savings of America complained to authorities after Low deposited a forged Bank of America cashier’s check for about $496,000 and kept the bulk of the proceeds. Low’s lawyers contend that he borrowed the money from a Santa Monica finance company, but Swain said there is no such company and that Low’s story is preposterous.

During the hearing, Miller also asserted that Saxey adopted false statements by Golasz in an affidavit filed in support of Low’s arrest in January. He also accused Saxey of attempting to intimidate another synagogue official, Michael Klein.

Klein has submitted an affidavit saying that two days after defense lawyers filed the misconduct motion in April, Saxey and another FBI agent came to his San Fernando Valley house to serve him with a subpoena. In the affidavit, Klein states that when he indicated he would not cooperate with the government, Saxey “became visibly angry” and said that “I was trying to hide behind God.”

Klein also said that Saxey “seemed to compare my religious beliefs to David Koresh.”

Swain maintained that Saxey was not trying to intimidate Klein but conceded that his actions were problematic. “He felt badly about it, and we felt badly about it. And, in fact, he wrote a letter apologizing for his conduct,” she said.

Swain dismissed the contentions about false statements as insignificant discrepancies that easily could be explained away.

In a written motion, she stressed that some of Low’s illegal acts had been caught on videotape. She contended that the claim that he has been singled out because he is Jewish is a smoke screen to divert attention from his lawbreaking.