Confidant to Haredi patrol chief suspected of sexual assault to be kept in custody

A Tel Aviv judge decided Monday to keep in custody a close confidant of Chaim Rotter, head of the Shomrim patrol in Bnei Brak who is under investigation for the serial sexual assault of minors and women.

Rotter, whose alleged assaults span decades, was arrested Wednesday at Ben Gurion Airport as he arrived back in Israel. A gag order on his identity was lifted the next day.

Police said that Rotter’s associate, a Bnei Brak resident in his 20s, would remain in detention until this Wednesday, following a decision by the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court. Rotter himself had his remand extended until Thursday of this week.

The associate was named as Yoel Yosef. Police are investigating him on suspicion of intimidating Rotter’s victims into silence, assisting him in his crimes, and obstructing the police investigation.

He is one of five people associated with Rotter to have been arrested since the start of the week, but the only one brought in Monday morning for an extension of his remand. The remaining four were released Sunday to five days of house arrest.

Rotter heads the Shomrim patrol, a private security organization that operates in Bnei Brak in coordination with rabbis and law enforcement in the Haredi-majority city.

He is suspected of sexually assaulting many of the young volunteers in the organization, and of exploiting his position and connections to rabbinical leadership and local police to deter victims from filing complaints.

Rotter is suspected of forcing himself on victims as young as 12 years old.

Although the probe into Rotter was initially undertaken by officers in the Bnei Brak police station, it is now being led by a special investigation team in the Dan Region police, in the Tel Aviv District.

Yossi Rubenfeld, one of Rotter’s alleged victims who had filed a complaint against him in 2016, called on others harmed by the Haredi patrol chief to come forward.

“Nobody will intimidate us and nobody will threaten us. I call on anyone who was harmed — do not stay silent. Go to the police station, file a complaint and demand full treatment [of the matter]. This is the time to stand together, bravely and truthfully. Justice is on our side,” Rubenfeld wrote on Facebook.

He said that the complaints he had filed against Rotter over the years had previously gone unanswered by police.

“Over all these years I’ve spoken, asked them to believe me, and no one listened. Back in 2016 I had the courage to complain to police. I stood exposed in front of them — exposed, hurt and truthful — and they turned their backs then, as well,” he wrote.

Rotter has reportedly been put on suicide watch in recent days. Authorities placed him in a cell with surveillance cameras for fear he may attempt to take his own life, according to the Haaretz daily.