MIAMI (CBSMiami) – CBS4 has obtained the audio recording of a controlled call made under police supervision between a rabbi accused of molestation and the mother of the child. During the call, the rabbi maintains his innocence.
“There was never any touch. No sexual. Not any type,” Rabbi Steve Karro tells the mother.
The mother of a child he allegedly fondled doesn’t believe him.
“Rabbi Karro, she’s an 11-year-old girl. She’s very smart. She’s very intelligent. She knows herself when she’s uncomfortable. She mentioned to me something happened. She was very scared to tell me. We’re devastated Rabbi Karro. We’re devastated for what she’s going through right now,” she tells him.
In the 10 minute call, the mother claims the Rabbi attempted to kiss her daughter and touch her legs inappropriately.
She claims, “You touched in a way that was uncomfortable. You were rubbing her legs.”
“Where did I touch her?” Karro responds.
During the entire phone call, the rabbi denies anything illicit took place.
“It’s a made up thing. It’s a lie. Her statement is false,” he says.
The incident allegedly happened at Karro’s Miami Beach art gallery.
Police felt there was enough evidence to arrest him in May.
Interrogation recordings obtained by CBS4 show Karro declined to hire an attorney, maintaining his innocence.
“There was no kissing. There is no sexual anything,” he told police.
When pressed over why the girl would accuse him, he claimed she might fear men.
“The child has been driven in a certain way and threatened that the man is a rapist, the man is this, the man is that,” Karro claimed.
When he left jail he admitted to hugging her, loving the child, but nothing more.
“It was very simple. Love, harmony, cleansing. Nothing else. Nothing inappropriate, nothing that I violated anybody’s rights,” Karro said.
Karro is out on bond, under house arrest. He is expected back in court December 14th.
