On video: Extension of detention in Tel Aviv kindergarten abuse case (Walla system!)
An ultra-orthodox father was accused today (Wednesday) of harassing his nine adopted sons in the United States.
The suspect, 38-year-old Haim Nissim Cohen, shared dozens of videos on his Tiktok account and gained about 200,000 followers.
On the social network, Cohen often shares documentation of his family and, among other things, of his nine adopted children - whom according to the charge he sexually harassed.
"Behind all the videos is excessive abuse," prosecutor Jana Oswald said at the court hearing.
Cohen is a Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn who was born Jeffrey Lujan.
He was arrested last month after one of his sons, 17, guested on a podcast and anonymously reported rape and abuse.
The victim said he had been sexually assaulted since he was 11, weeks after he was adopted, and claimed that many of his siblings had been abused.
The boy also added that he was afraid and that child protection services were called to the house at least eight times - but according to him they "never succeeded in saving us".
"There were a lot of red flags."
Haim Nissim Cohen and his adopted children (photo: screenshot, from social networks, according to Section 27 A of the Copyright Law)
Following the report, a police investigation was opened against the father - 12 charges were filed against him.
The lawsuit states that the father kept the children locked in the room most of the day - and only released them at four in the afternoon.
As well as he forced Utep to perform sexual acts.
One of the victims, 16 years old, said that Cohen threatened to spray him with pepper spray if he refused to do as he said.
According to the indictment, the acts were also committed in a cabin owned by Cohen in Odessa.
Cohen also faces a criminal charge for an indecent act he committed on a foreign exchange student from Spain in 2019.
Because of this, he is prohibited from staying within a thousand feet of places where children are - but he is not prohibited from continuing to raise his adopted children.
"There were so many red flags," said the lawyer representing the Spanish student Sherry Chandler.
"We all suspected that Cohen was a pedophile. It doesn't start in one day. We all suspected that the other children were being abused."
Child Protective Services declined to provide information on how many reports were received about Cohen, or to comment on why he is allowed to continue raising the children alone.
"There was suspicion and things we followed up on but nothing significant that we could file charges against," prosecutor Oswald told Judge Danilo Lacaio when asked why more was not done.
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