NEW BRUNSWICK The attorney for a rabbi charged with stealing $630,000 in public tuition funds through a Lakewood special-needs school says the evidence against Osher Eisemann was obtained from raids through overly broad search warrants and should be thrown out.
The state has until Sept. 8 to respond to the motion by Lee Vartan, Eisemann’s attorney, to suppress evidence from the trove of electronic and paper documents recovered from raids at six locations.
Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Bucca says he’ll conduct a hearing on the motion Sept. 29.
The raids took place in June 2016 at the School for Children with Hidden Intelligence better known by its acronym, SCHI (pronounced “shy”) as well as school offices, Eisemann’s home, and the homes of an SCHI employee and two people who have business dealings with the school, according to new court documents.
Eisemann is the founder and director of SCHI, whose predominant enrollment is from Orthodox Jewish familes.
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Nine months after the raids, Eisemann, 60, was charged in a four-count indictment.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Vartan, from the Holland & Knight LLP law firm, New York, on Monday said the state’s evidence against Eisemann came from “facially and fatally defective search warrants.”
In court papers asking to have the evidence suppressed, Vartan wrote that the searches “allowed the state to seize every stray scrap of paper and electronic storage device across the six locations, regardless of whether the items seized related at all to the state’s investigation, and regardless of whether the state had probable cause to seize such item.”
The case is being heard in Middlesex County. Three of the districts that send children to SCHI are in the county: Highland Park, Edison and Monroe.
A rabbi accused of stealing money from a school he founded for children with special needs is temporarily stepping down from the institution.
The School for Children with Hidden Intelligence in Lakewood announced Tuesday that Rabbi Osher Eisemann is taking a leave of absence to focus on his case.
The 60-year-old Lakewood man has pleaded not guilty to charges of theft, misapplication of entrusted property, money laundering and misconduct by a corporate official.
Authorities have claimed he misappropriated more than $630,000 in public tuition funds the school received.
Eisemann is accused of stealing about $430,000 in public tuition money for a personal business venture. He also allegedly misappropriated an additional $200,000 in a money laundering scheme.