Ex-leader of Shomrim patrol in Brooklyn pleads guilty to sexual abuse of teen girl
Plea allows Jacob Daskal to avoid trial in case that alleges he groomed a 15-year-old for sex; he faces a minimum prison sentence of 14 years
NEW YORK — The former leader of a US safety patrol in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community pleaded guilty on Friday to charges he sexually abused a teenage girl.
Jacob Daskal, who founded the Shomrim group of Borough Park some 30 years ago, was charged in March 2021 with coercing a minor to engage in illicit sexual conduct, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
The plea allows Daskal to avoid a trial in a case that alleged he groomed a 15-year-old girl for sex. Authorities said Daskal subjected the girl to sexual acts over a three-month period in 2017. He was arrested in 2018 on state-level charges in the incident.
According to the original indictment against him, Daskal sexually assaulted the victim in his Brooklyn home as well as his summer home in South Fallsburg, New York in August 2017. Two months later, the victim moved to Chicago to attend a new school and live with another family. While she was there, Daskal contacted the victim — also from a Haredi community — and coerced her into video chatting naked and sending him nude photos. In November of that year, Daskal traveled to Chicago to visit the victim, bringing her to his hotel room and raping her.
“Daskal, who was almost 60 years old when these crimes were committed, exploited the vulnerability of a young teenager by grooming her for sex and enticing her into having sexual relations with him,” said Seth DuCharme, the acting US attorney for the eastern district of New York at the time.
As part of the plea agreement, Daskal must register as a sex offender, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn.
“The defendant has admitted he abused his power, trust and position in the community by committing deplorable acts against a child in his care,” said US Attorney Breon Peace.
Daskal faces a minimum prison sentence of 14 years.
Daskal headed the Boro Park Shomrim Society, an Orthodox Jewish crime-patrol group associated with the New York Police Department.
The organization, made up largely of local Hasidic business owners in Borough Park, patrols Borough Park in marked cars, and is considered a powerful force in the neighborhood.
