It’s an unusual legal strategy, to say the least: 27-year-old Andrew Goodman, after admitting to molesting two teenaged Orthodox siblings, finished his courtroom statement by professing his undying love for one of them. But for whatever reason, even after blurting out, “I did and still do to this day love [you],” the consequences were unusually light for Goodman.
In a result that Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hyne says “defies logic and is frankly inexplicable,” the judge sentenced the child offender to only two years in prison.
Andrew Goodman was charged with molesting the two brothers for four years, beginning when one was 11 years old and the other was 13. He plead guilty to a 48-count indictment – which is “even more [counts] than Jerry Sandusky” was found guilty of, a victim pointed out.
The case has stirred the discontentment of the Jewish community in Brooklyn, members of which banded together to collect evidence against Goodman.
In 2010 when Goodman paid a $1 million bail bond to return to his home in New York, community members gathered and allegedly recorded a video of numerous boys leaving his house in the early hours of the morning.
“Andrew Goodman is known in our community as a lifelong molester who preys on young boys and ruins their lives,” a scholar at Congregation Bais Torah wrote to Judge Martin Murph, according to a NY Post article.
The New York Daily News mentions four “long and torturous years” in which Goodman took advantage of the defendant by inviting him to restaurants and separating him from his parents. As a result, the teen said he no longer attends school and now struggles to hold healthy social relationships.
Goodman was convicted of three more counts of felony than Jerry Sandusky; however, at a time when Sandusky faces 373 years in prison for similar charges, several community members are outraged that Goodman, who has already spent some jail time, could actually be released from prison as early as September.
That means two months — which means many pleas and demands for justice have fallen on deaf ears.
