Brooklyn Shomrim leader Jacob Daskal pleads guilty to federal child rape charges involving 15-year-old girl
The former head of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood watch group pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that he forced a troubled 15-year-old girl to have sex.
Brooklyn Shomrim leader Jacob Daskal, 64, avoided trial in Brooklyn Federal Court on allegations he groomed the underage girl and transported from Brooklyn across the state line to New Jersey and then upstate, where he assaulted her at his vacation home and at a campground.
As part of his guilty plea, Daskal agreed to a sentence within the range of 14 to 17 years in jail. He is also required to register as a sex offender. The exact details of his sentence will be determined at a future hearing.
“The defendant has admitted he abused his power, trust and position in the community by committing deplorable acts against a child in his care,” stated Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
Daskal broke down in tears as he admitted his guilt.
“I transported the 15-year-old victim from New York, Brooklyn to New Jersey,” he said. “I was 58 years old at that time.”
Daskal, however, did not make any detailed statements in court about his illegal conduct with the victim.
According to prosecutors, Daskal used his status as the anti-crime patrol’s chief to scare his victim into keeping quiet,
“It’s just going to ruin your life if you tell people,” he warned the teen, according to the feds.
The alleged abuse started in 2017, after the teen, who was a member of the Orthodox Jewish community in Borough Park, started having problems with her family and asked a local mentor for help that spring, according to filings by federal prosecutors.
That mentor contacted the Borough Park Shomrim Society, which in turn linked the girl up with Daskal.
The Shormim, an influential volunteer group with ties to the NYPD, works as a nonprofit auxiliary police of sorts in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. It has about 130 members, a 24-7 dispatch service and vehicles that have markings resembling police cars.
Daskal, who was the Borough Park Shomrim’s founder and chief, stepped in to help the victim, letting her move in with him and his wife in Brooklyn in the short term, prosecutors said. And when she moved in with her aunt and uncle to finish out the school year, Daskal kept in close contact.
Her aunt and uncle were leaving the city for the summer, though, so she needed a place to stay — and Daskal offered up a room in his summer home in South Fallsburg, N.Y.
That’s when the sexual abuse started, prosecutors said. One Saturday night in August 2017, he asked the girl to come to her bedroom, removed her shirt and started molesting her, authorities said..
He had sex with her in the house and at a nearby campgrounds on several occasions and drove her back to Brooklyn, crossing state lines through New Jersey, several times for more sexual encounters, according to officials..
A well-known community leader with ties to politicos and police, Daskal has donated money to state Sen. Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) and to former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2009 run for public advocate.
The Shomrim has taken some hits to its reputation in recent years, and in 2013, Daskal publicly defended the watchdog group’s actions after a man who shot four Shomrim members in a wild 2010 melee was acquitted of attempted murder.
The group’s members tailed the man, David Flores, after hearing a report that he was seen masturbating near children. The masturbation allegation fell apart at trial, but Flores was still convicted of weapon possession and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
