Rabbi’s Assistant Kept in Jail on Sex Charge : Crime: U.S. judge cites ‘very, very strong’ allegations. The Brooklyn man and a Hasidic leader are accused of molesting 15-year-old girl on a flight to Los Angeles.

Citing the seriousness of the allegations as well as the suspect’s record, a federal magistrate refused Tuesday to release a rabbi’s assistant jailed on charges that he sexually molested a teen-age girl on a transpacific flight.

“The corroborated allegations in the affidavit are very, very strong at this time,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin said at a Los Angeles bail hearing, referring to the complaint filed against Yehudah Friedlander, 44, of Brooklyn, N.Y.

“I believe your client is a serious danger to the community,” she told defense attorney Mitchell W. Egers.

Turchin said she would consider setting bail for Friedlander if someone who has known him for at least five years is willing to post a $100,000 personal property bond.

In remarks to reporters, Egers later said he would make every effort to get his client out of jail, which he described as a particularly unpleasant place for a religious person such as Friedlander.

Both Friedlander and Rabbi Israel Grunwald, with whom he was traveling on an Australia-to-Los Angeles flight last week, are accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old who sat in their row.

Grunwald, a leader of a New York-based Hasidic sect, was released on $10,000 bail last week and returned home. He is charged with abusive sexual contact. Friedlander, who Egers said is Grunwald’s assistant but is not an ordained rabbi, is charged with sexual abuse of a minor.

Proclaiming the innocence of both men, Egers has criticized the accuracy of a detailed affidavit filed with the complaint. In addition to quoting the teen-ager, the document quotes another passenger as saying that she saw one of the men groping the girl and quotes Friedlander as saying that he sexually touched the girl after she encouraged him to do so.

Egers had requested $25,000 bail for Friedlander, who is married and has five children.

Government prosecutors asked that Friedlander be held or that Turchin require a $100,000 bond before releasing him.

“Essentially,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Debra Yang argued, Friedlander “reached into the pants of a 15-year-old minor who was a stranger.”

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Yang added that the circumstances underlying Friedlander’s 1991 arrest in Sullivan County, N.Y., were troubling. Turchin seemed to agree, telling Egers, “I construe the documents as essentially unfavorable to your client.”

The files of the prior arrest were made available to Turchin and the attorneys, but they otherwise remain sealed by court order and details of the case were not publicly disclosed.

Prosecutors say the charge, a misdemeanor alleging sexual contact without consent, was dismissed after Friedlander completed a six-month probation. Egers indicated in court that the complaint had been filed by an adult.