Manhattan prosecutors revealed creepy details of a New Jersey rabbi’s alleged online pursuit of a 13-year-old girl yesterday – including the black bag of condoms and lubricants they say he brought to their first “date.”
“We could meet and kiss,” prosecutors say prominent rabbi Israel Kestenbaum, 55, typed in his overture to a male undercover cop posing online as “Katie.”
And in subsequent messages over the course of eight days last month, before he arranged a “date” at a lower Manhattan Starbucks, Kestenbaum allegedly typed – among far more graphic suggestions – “i dream of us being naked together . . and u and me hugging and kissing.”
Prosecutors also revealed yesterday that Kestenbaum – a married father of six from Highland Park who serves on the Manhattan-based New York Board of Rabbis – may be charged with additional related crimes.
In their ongoing search of the rabbi’s computer, cops found “at least one image of child pornography,” prosecutor Jennifer Steiner told a Manhattan judge yesterday morning.
“Further, police also found evidence that the defendant engaged in electronic instant message conversations with another young girl,” the prosecutor added, as Kestenbaum stood before the judge, eyes downcast, and dressed in black from his yarmulke to his shoes.
As his brother and his son sat in the audience, Kestenbaum, who’d spent the night in jail, was expressionless – until the prosecutor told the judge the cell phone number Kestenbaum gave “Katie” came back registered to the Board of Rabbis. Kestenbaum then shook his head, silently.
The prosecutor revealed the embarrassing details – that Kestenbaum’s wife was already divorcing him, and wants him kept away from their 9-year-old daughter – in hopes Manhattan Judge William Harrington would set $25,000 cash bail.
Instead, the judge set bail at $5,000 cash or bond – meaning the rabbi could free himself with as little as a 10 percent payment on a bond, or $500.
To go free, Kestenbaum must turn in his passport – which by evening was still nowhere to be found.while, Kestenbaum vehemently denied the charges through his lawyer, Raymond Granger.