Dov Hertz is a wealthy and well-known real estate developer in New York City, who is also heavily active in philanthropic endeavors throughout the New York Orthodox community. According to a lawsuit filed in November, 2023, he is also responsible for sexually abusing two 13 year old girls.

According to the complaint, Plaintiff began working as a mother’s helper at a Catskills bungalow colony in or around the summer of 1982. The complaint states that she would stay up with the mother and her children, babysitting and doing light housekeeping, all week while the father would only be around on weekends. That summer, plaintiff alleges, she met Dov Hertz and his wife, and began babysitting their two youngest children.

One night, according to the complaint, when Plaintiff was babysitting Hertz’s kids and Hertz’s wife wasn’t home, she received a call from Hertz on the house phone saying he wanted to talk to her, even after being told his wife wasn’t home. The complaint alleges that after speaking with Plaintiff for some time Hertz asked her if she’d ever kissed a boy, what he looked like, and how it had made her feel.

On future calls, according to the complaint, he pushed further, asking if she knew other words for penis, like cock. Soon thereafter, the complaint alleges, Hertz hired Plaintiff and requested that she exclusively babysit for his family, which she agreed to, staying exclusively in their bungalow and babysitting. Plaintiff alleges that Hertz continued to talk to her by phone for hours at a time, grooming her and asking her sexual questions.

Plaintiff alleges that one weekend she went home so she could go on a date with a boy her age, and upon her immediate return Dov Hertz asked her for explicit details about what happened on the date, including how she felt on the date, and whether she’d gotten wet between her legs. According to the complaint he also described to her why women get wet between their legs, what it means when a man gets a “hard cock,” and described to Plaintiff details about nipple stimulation leading to sexual arousal.

Soon after this call, Plaintiff alleges, Hertz told her on another call that he was going to get her alone and “we will see what happens,” which Plaintiff says scared her. One day by the pool, according to the complaint, Hertz came up to Plaintiff while his wife, other women, and other minors were in the pool area, and asked her to describe all the women and tell him who was sexiest. Plaintiff states that she didn’t understand why he would ask her this when his wife was in the pool. He then, according to the complaint, made Plaintiff list and describe each woman and girl, regardless of age, asking for specific details about their figures, and what she thought about each of their bodies, and told Plaintiff to think of him sexually while she was at the pool.

On another call, according to the complaint, Dov Hertz asked Plaintiff if she had ever masturbated before, and then went into extreme graphic detail in describing to her what she should do to masturbate. He also, according to the complaint, asked her for her bra size and responded when she told him that it was impressive.

On another call, according to the complaint, Hertz again graphically described how to find the clitoris, how to stimulate it, and described what an orgasm was to the 13 year old Plaintiff. On another call, according to the complaint, Hertz told Plaintiff that he was meeting a woman who was not his wife in the city. The complaint states that he told Plaintiff this knowing she knew the woman. He then, according to the complaint, told her how they’d met and the various sexual acts he’d performed on her, saying that he had opened up a new world sexually for this woman and then started repeatedly telling Plaintiff to wait until he got her alone every time they spoke, and that it was only a matter of time, which scared her.  

One Saturday night, according to the complaint, Plaintiff was behind the bungalow taking out the trash and Hertz appeared out of nowhere, scaring Plaintiff. Plaintiff alleges that Hertz appeared to be enjoying her fright, asking her what she was afraid of, and if she was worried he would “get” her by the garbage dump. According to the complaint he told her he would wait until they had a place.

According to the complaint, Hertz told Plaintiff that he wanted to hire her after the summer as well, and she accepted, not feeling like she had a choice. Plaintiff states that Hertz would pick her up at home and drive her to his house himself. The complaint alleges that during this time the sexual conversations continued in person, and that Hertz would place porn magazines where he thought Plaintiff would find them while babysitting. Plaintiff alleges that Hertz would then demand that she describe what she’d seen in the magazines and ask her if it made her “feel warm and wet between her legs.”

The complaint further alleges that he would ask her whether she liked seeing the women naked, ask for descriptions of what the women in the magazines were doing, and then ask her if she liked seeing them performing those sexual acts. Plaintiff alleges that this happened every time she babysat for the family, and that it made her feel confused, alone, isolated, secretive, and dirty.

According to the complaint, Hertz arranged one weekend for Plaintiff to sleet over at his house to babysit his children because by the time he got home, he said, it would be too late to drive her home. Plaintiff states that she planned to sleep in the children’s room because was scared and thought that would be safer. Plaintiff alleges that she fell asleep before Hertz came up, and that when he did he came into the children’s room to check if they were asleep. The complaint alleges that he snuck into the bed where Plaintiff was sleeping, woke her up by forcibly kissing her, and then repeated his threat, “Wait till I get you alone.” Plaintiff states that she was horrified and felt powerless, and that she grabbed the blanket tight over her pajamas to prevent him from touching her, which seemed to amuse him. The complaint alleges that he laughed at her asking her, “What do you think? That I am crazy? That I would touch you here with my kids?”

In September of that year, according to the complaint, Plaintiff babysat Hertz’s kids again for his wife’s birthday. Plaintiff states that she felt scared after the previous incident, but felt she had no choice as this had been arranged months prior. The complaint alleges that Plaintiff asked her friend, also a minor girl, to come with her that night to Hertz’s house to prevent her from being alone with Hertz while she babysat. Plaintiff states that she told her friend about the threats Hertz had made, and her friend agreed.

When Dov picked the two girls up, according to the complaint, he asked them if they felt they’d be safer together. Later that night, according to the complaint, as Dov was driving the two girls home, he had them both sit in the front bench of the car, Plaintiff in the middle seat next to the driver’s seat, and her friend in the seat next to the passenger door. After driving a short distance, according to the complaint, Hertz pulled the car over and forcibly moved the girls to either side of him as he sat in the middle seat of the front bench of the car. He then told them, according to the complaint, “If you thought you brought protection, you were wrong,” referring to Plaintiff’s friend.

The complaint alleges that Hertz then asked them if they knew what a ménage à trois was, and after receiving a negative from them explained what it was and that it was every man’s fantasy to have a threesome with two young girls. He then, according to the complaint, demanded they do that with him, grabbing Plaintiff’s young friend, forcibly kissing her, and shoving his tongue into her mouth. He then, according to the complaint, forcefully fondled, grabbed, and groped Plaintiff’s breasts, and forced her to kiss him, shoving his tongue in her mouth.

According to the complaint, Hertz then violently grabbed Plaintiff’s hand and forced it onto his penis, using his hand to ensure that her hand remained on his penis for some time. After Hertz was satisfied, according to the complaint, he told Plaintiff and her friend that that would be it for now, and that he would drive them home before his wife began to suspect anything. The complaint alleges that Hertz then called her the next day making sexually explicit comments about her body, and asking her if she thought his cock was big. On the same call, according to the complaint, he told Plaintiff that he planned to see her often, that they would do things similar to what they’d done in the car, and that he would teach her all about sex. Plaintiff states that she was terrified and confused, and states that her mother, who was in the room at the time, grabbed the phone and told Hertz never to talk to Plaintiff again.

Plaintiff states that she avoided Hertz the following summer, but saw him talking to a number of young girls at camp who she says were younger than her.

Ten years later, according to the complaint, Plaintiff worked for clients that required her to talk to Hertz about elevators they used that he owned. Soon after initially contacting Hertz, Plaintiff alleges, he resumed his old habits, and one time, when they met in person, Hertz described to Plaintiff many of the sexual relationships he’d been in since he’d last seen her, and what he’d done to those women and their bodies. According to the complaint he specifically bragged to her about a 15 year old babysitter in the Catskills he had met and groomed and later had sex with, and said that his goal was to teach all young girls about their sexuality, insisting that he should be their first.

Link to full complaint