Harish mayor charged with indecent acts; prosecutors said to back down from rape charges due to his skillful answers prepped with ChatGPT

State prosecutors indict Harish Mayor Yitzhak Keshet for indecent acts but refrain from charging him with rape despite accusations of serious sexual assault.

Police arrested Keshet last month after receiving complaints from seven women, including some who had been working for the mayor at the time they were allegedly harassed.

The indictment, filed in the Hadera Magistrate’s Court, accuses the mayor of leveraging his high-ranking position to sexually exploit employees and others dependent on his municipality’s services.

Prosecutors say the mayor committed indecent acts, including “touching their bodies without their consent, hugging, kissing and, in some cases, pressing his body and genitals against theirs so they could feel his erection.”

In an interview with Channel 12 news, one of the women, a former municipal employee, detailed the mayor forcing himself on her. In his room, the mayor allegedly began to undress the victim and do “all sorts of intimate and sexual things.”

“I was in shock, he laid me on his bed and then laid on top of me, he’s strong. I couldn’t push him,” recounted the municipal worker. “He asked me to perform a sexual act on him. It was disgusting and repulsive. Afterwards, I left and threw up.”

Despite the woman’s account, prosecutors decided to charge the mayor with the less serious offense of indecent acts, rather than rape. He is also accused of fraud and breach of trust.

Prosecutors backed down on rape charges in part due to Keshet’s skillful performance in police interrogation, which he prepared for by consulting with the AI tool ChatGPT, says the Walla news site.

The tool helped him formulate answers to investigators’ anticipated questions and cast doubt on the victims’ more serious allegations.

Many women had already been reluctant to testify against the mayor, in part due to his efforts to stifle testimony by sending messengers to offer favors in return for their silence, the report says.

The Israel Police recently used AI, albeit with less success, when preparing its argument for a criminal case and accidentally cited nonexistent legislation, Hebrew outlets reported last week.

Several Hebrew outlets report that the police investigation against Keshet revealed he assaulted several other women, who never filed complaints.