United States v. Helbrans
| Decision Date | 08 July 2021 |
| Docket Number | S2 19-CR-497-04 (NSR), S2 19-CR-497-03 (NSR), S2 19-CR-497-09 (NSR),S2 19-CR-497-01 (NSR), S2 19-CR-497-02 (NSR), S2 19-CR-497-05 (NSR) |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, v. Nachman HELBRANS, Mayer Rosner, Aron Rosner, Jacob Rosner, Matityau Moshe Malka, and Mordechay Malka, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
James Alan Ligtenberg, Assistant US Attorney, Jamie Ellen Bagliebter, Samuel S. Adelsberg, Assistant US Attorney, United States Attorney's Office, New York, NY, for United States of America.
Bruce D. Koffsky, Koffsky & Felsen, LLC, Stamford, CT, Peter Joel Schaffer, Peter J. Schaeffer, Attorney at Law, Bronx, NY, for Defendant Nachman Helbrans.
Jason Immanuel Ser, Public Defender, Martin Samuel Cohen, Public Defender, Federal Defenders of New York Inc., New York, NY, Susanne Brody, Public Defender, Federal Defenders of New York Inc., White Plains, NY, for Defendant Mayer Rosner.
Evan Loren Lipton, Henry Edward Mazurek, Meister Seelig & Fein LLP, New York, NY, for Defendant Aron Rosner.
Alan S. Lewis, Melissa Jane Erwin, Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, Samuel Michael Braverman, Sophia Sorella Sofferman, Fasulo Braverman & Di Maggio, LLP, New York, NY, for Defendant Jacob Rosner.
Howard Evan Tanner, White Plains, NY, Joseph A. Vita, Port Chester, NY, for Defendant Matityau Moshe Malka.
Susan C. Wolfe, Riverdale, NY, Diane Margaret Fischer, Law Office of Diane Fischer, Brooklyn, NY, for Defendant Mordechay Malka.
This case involves the alleged kidnapping of two minors ("the Minors") from their Mother in New York, by members of an insular religious community currently based in Guatemala, of which the Mother and the Minors were previously a part. Specifically, Defendants Nachman Helbrans, Mayer Rosner, Aron Rosner, Jacob Rosner, Matityau Moshe Malka, and Mordechay Malka (collectively, "Defendants") are charged by indictment with, among other things, various counts of international parental kidnapping and conspiracy to commit international parental kidnapping.1 (ECF Nos. 49, 52, 229.)
The Court granted Defendants leave to file the instant pretrial motions, including motions to dismiss the Indictment. Before the Court are Defendants’ pretrial motions filed by and through their counsel seeking, in sum and substance, (1) to dismiss the Indictment because (A) the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act ("IPKCA") is unconstitutional as applied to Defendants where (i) the term "parental rights" is void for vagueness, and (ii) the term "has been in the United States" is void for vagueness; (2) to dismiss certain counts or counts against certain Defendants as follows (A) all claims against Helbrans who was allegedly removed from Mexico to the United States without lawful process, (B) the 2019 IPKCA Charge against Matityau Moshe Malka because his alleged provision of phones to Minor-1, even if true, does not amount to a kidnapping attempt, (C) the IPKCA Conspiracy Count as improperly duplicitous; (3) a bill of particulars with respect to Mayer Rosner and Jacob Rosner; (4) in camera review of the grand jury minutes; and (5) orders directing various pretrial disclosures.2 ,3 (ECF Nos. 120, 123, 125, 131, 135, and 146.)
While the motions were pending, the Government filed a Superseding Indictment ("Superseding Indictment" or "S2" (ECF No. 229)), which contains the original four counts, now labeled Counts Three through Six (hereinafter the "IPKCA Counts"), as well as two additional Counts against Defendants Helbrans and Mayer Rosner.4 While the basic allegations remain the same, the Superseding Indictment contains additional factual background applicable to all six counts.
Because the four counts of the Indictment are contained in and supplemented by the Superseding Indictment, the Court deems the pending motions as challenges to the IPKCA Charges of the Superseding Indictment.5 Additionally, to the extent that Defendants have requested to join in the motions of their Co-Defendants, those requests are granted.
For the following reasons, Defendants’ Motions are otherwise DENIED.
The Defendants are members of Lev Tahor, an insular Jewish religious community of about 250 members founded in the 1980s by the father of Defendant Nachman Helbrans. (S2 ¶ 3.) Nachman Helbrans (hereinafter "Helbrans") took over as the community's leader after his father passed away in 2016 or 2017. (S2 ¶ 3.)
In or about 2017, Helbrans arranged to have Minor-1, his then-twelve-year-old niece, engaged to be religiously "married" to Jacob Rosner, who was eighteen years old at the time. (S2 ¶ 6.) Minor-1 and Jacob Rosner were religiously "married" the following year when she was thirteen and he was nineteen. (S2 ¶ 6.)
In or about October 2018, the Mother, who is Helbrans's sister, determined that it was no longer safer for her children to remain in the Lev Tahor community in Guatemala. (S2 ¶ 8). In early November 2018, the Mother and her six children, including the Minors, left Lev Tahor and relocated to the United States. (S2 ¶ 8.)
On or about November 14, 2018, Kings County Family Court (in Brooklyn, New York) granted the Mother temporary sole custody of her six children, including the Minors, and enjoined the children's father, Aaron Teller ("Teller"), from having any communication with the children. (S2 ¶ 8.)
At approximately 3:00 A.M. on or about December 8, 2018, Nachman Helbrans, Mordechay Malka, Jacob Rosner, and others kidnapped the Minors—then fourteen and twelve—from a home in Woodridge, New York. (S2 ¶ 10.) They, along with others, took the Minors to a hotel where they were provided with new clothes before they were driven to Scranton International Airport in Pennsylvania. Helbrans and the Minors, dressed in secular clothing, and using passports bearing the names of two of Helbrans’ children proceeded through airport security in Scranton, flew to Washington, D.C., then to Texas, and then took a bus across the border to Mexico. (S2 ¶ 11.) Other Defendants, including Mordechay Malka and Jacob Rosner, took separate routes out of the country to Mexico. (S2 ¶ 12.) Once in Mexico, Nachman Helbrans and others transported the Minors to several hotels and residences with assistance from Lev Tahor members in the United States, Mexico, and Guatemala. At various times, Helbrans and the Minors were met by Mayer Rosner, Jacob Rosner, Matityau Moshe Malka, and others. (Id. )
On or about December 18, 2018, Mexican law enforcement raided a house in San Miguel Tlaixpan, Mexico, and detained Helbrans, Mayer Rosner, Jacob Rosner, and Matityau Moshe Malka, among other individuals.
On December 24, 2018, Aron Rosner was arrested in Brooklyn, New York.6 (Minute Entry dated December 24, 2018.)
On December 26, 2018, officials from Mexico's immigration authority, Instituto Nacional de Migración ("INM"), informed the FBI that INM had elected to deport Helbrans, Mayer Rosner, Jacob Rosner, and Matityau Moshe Malka—all of whom were and are U.S. citizens—from Mexico and deliver them into the custody of the FBI. On December 27, 2018, two INM officials accompanied Helbrans, Mayer Rosner, Jacob Rosner, and Matityau Moshe Malka on a commercial flight from Mexico City to New York. The FBI arrested Helbrans, Mayer Rosner, Jacob Rosner upon their arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport (Minute Entries dated December 27, 2018), pursuant to a Complaint alleging that Helbrans, Mayer Rosner, and Jacob Rosner conspired to kidnap two victims. (Dkt No. 18 MJ 10939, ECF No. 1.)
On or about December 27, 2018, the Minors were recovered at a hotel in Mexico after a three-week search involving various local, federal, and international law enforcement entities. (S2 ¶ 13.) At the time, the Minors were accompanied by Shmiel and Yoil Weingarten (id. ), who were released by Mexican authorities, and have since returned, along with Yakov Weingarten, to Guatemala.
At the time of the December 2018 kidnapping, Lev Tahor was seeking asylum for the entire Lev Tahor community in Iran. (S2 ¶ 14.)
In or about March 2019, approximately three months after the Minors were recovered in Mexico, Helbrans, Yakov Weingarten, Matityau Moshe Malka, and others, attempted to kidnap Minor-1 a second time. (S2 ¶ 15.) During this attempt, Matityau Moshe Malka provided Minor-1 with a number of drop phones and pills of a mood-altering prescription drug. (Id. )
On March 26, 2019, a Complaint was filed charging Matityau Moshe Malka with conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to obstruct justice. (Dkt No. 19 MJ 3011, ECF No. 1.) Matityau Moshe Malka was arrested the same day. (Minute Entry dated March 26, 2019.)
On July 8, 2019, the Government sought and obtained a four-count Indictment charging (1) all Defendants with conspiracy (i) to commit international parental kidnapping, (ii) to unlawfully use a means of identification, and (iii) to enter by false pretenses the secure area of an airport, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 ("IPKCA Conspiracy"); (2) all Defendants (except Mordechay Malka) with two counts of international parental kidnapping (one for each Minor in the December Kidnapping), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1204 ("IPKCA Count Two" and "IPKCA Count Three"); and (3) Helbrans, Matityau Moshe Malka, and Yakov Weingarten with another count of international parental kidnapping (for the March 2019 attempted kidnapping of Minor-1), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1204 ("IPKCA Count Four"). The Government charged Mordechay Malka and Yoil, Shmiel, and Yakov Weingarten, in a separate sealed superseding indictment containing the same counts and allegations, S1 19 Cr. 497 (ECF No. 52), because, at the time, these four Defendants were at-large. For ease of reference, both charging indictments (ECF Nos. 49 and 52) are addressed together as "the Indictment."
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