Lawsuit Accuses Connecticut Rabbi Of Sexual Abuse

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A Connecticut rabbi is accused of raping and molesting a teenage boy hundreds of times from 2001 to 2005 when the boy was a student at a Jewish boarding school in New Haven, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court.

The former student, Eliyahu Mirlis, now 28, of New Jersey, accuses Rabbi Daniel Greer, principal of the Yeshiva of New Haven school, of sexual abuse.

Greer's attorney, William Ward, said Greer denies the allegations and is now forced to prove they are false. Ward asked the public to ask for evidence before rushing to judgment.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. It also names as defendants Yeshiva of New Haven, which is an all-boys high school, and The Gan School, an elementary school for boys and girls that Greer also leads. The lawsuit accuses the schools of allowing the sexual abuse to continue for years.

"Rabbi Greer was in his sixties when he forced the minor Eli to engage in acts of sex with him,'' the lawsuit says. "Rabbi Greer frequently gave Eli alcohol at the time he raped and assaulted his child victim. Rabbi Greer showed Eli pornographic films.''

The lawsuit also says that Greer sexually assaulted Mirlis on school property, in the bedroom of Greer's home, at motels in Branford, Connecticut, and in Paoli and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, on land in Hamden, Connecticut, and at rental properties in New Haven owned and managed by Yeshiva of New Haven and The Gan School.

"It was perpetrated in these different assaults, sometimes lasting a few minutes, sometimes lasting an hour, sometimes lasting all night," the plaintiff's lawyer, Antonio Ponvert, told WCBS 880's Fran Schneidau.

The lawsuit also alleges Greer, now 75, sexually abused at least one other boy at the school.

Ponvert said that the lawsuit will force Greer to answer to charges which he has never formally faced, Schneidau reported.

"Greer has never been criminally punished. He has never taken responsibility,'' Ponvert said.

Ponvert said his client hasn't sought criminal charges but would cooperate in any ensuing criminal probe. New Haven police say they won't investigate unless Mirlis files a criminal complaint.

Greer's lawyer questioned why Mirlis was coming forward with the allegations now.

"Ask yourself why the plaintiff would wait 14 years,'' Ward said. "Ask yourself why Mr. Mirlis, well into his adulthood, repeatedly honored the man he now accuses. Ask yourself why Mr. Mirlis, an orthodox Jew, would not seek redress from a rabbinical arbitration court. Ask yourself why Mr. Mirlis' first stop was his lawyer's office to seek money.''

Ward added, "It only takes a moment to make allegations with despicable indifference to the consequences to the damage they would cause to my client and his family and his reputation that he spent a lifetime building in his community. This is a difficult time for my client and his family.''

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