Tag Archives: Zev Steen

Zev Steen Sentenced to 23 Years in Fort Dix, Registry, & Lifetime Supervised Release Following Prison

The courtroom was filled with people there to witness the sentencing, mostly family and friends of Zev Steen, with about 5 or 6 people from the community present to observe but not support. Steen himself seemed unperturbed by the whole thing not displaying much emotion, and having a light conversation with is lawyers.

The hearing started with a discussion about the redacted sentencing letters included in the defense’s sentencing memo. The defense had initially petitioned the court to file their sentencing memo under seal, but had been denied. They had been ordered to minimally redact their document redacting only what was necessary to protect the identities of minors and other similarly sensitive information. Instead they had redacted every bit of identifying information about the authors of the letters and the nature of their relationships to Steen.

The morning of the hearing ZA’AKAH submitted a follow-up letter to the judge asking her to order the defense to refile their memo with fewer redactions. At the start of the hearing the judge showed the letter to the defense and asked them for their position. Steen’s lawyer argued, as he had in the letter, that case law showed that there was precedent for protecting the identities of letter writers and that ZA’AKAH’s intentions were to expose the letter writers rather than just shed light on the factors affecting the judge’s sentencing decisions.

The judge remarked that she had seen opposing case law and that it seemed ZA’AKAH was mainly interested in the identities of public figures who had written letters of support and that public figures generally have less of a presumption of privacy. The defense agreed that public figures enjoy less of a presumption of privacy, and the judge said she would find some middle ground that would likely involve less redaction for the letters by public figures. The same, she said, would be true of the video.

Following this discussion the judge inquired of the prosecution whether they had received any requests for restitution from any of the victims of either Steen’s direct abuse and filming or from any of the victims in the materials he’d possessed and distributed. The prosecution said that they’d sent the materials to NCMEC and received no return requests for restitution from any of the victims in the materials.

Then came the sentencing guidelines calculations. In federal court there are specific guidelines that govern what sentencing should be. These guidelines aren’t necessarily binding on judges but they are used as a baseline for determining a sentencing range. It’s a point-based system with all sorts of factors that can add or remove points. There were three groups of conduct being considered in determining Steen’s level for sentencing: Two instances of sexual exploitation of his victim, and the distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM). Given the crimes he had been accused of and pled guilty to, plus the fact that he exhibited a pattern of behavior, he was considered a dangerous repeat offender. Some points were reduced for having accepted responsibility for what he did and pleading guilty.

At the end of the calculation he was still at the maximum for his offense and the range of sentencing available was up to life imprisonment. In his plea deal, however, he had pled guilty in exchange for a maximum sentence of 28 years. His lawyers requested 15 years in their sentencing memo which is the mandatory minimum for Steen’s crimes.

After the sentencing guidelines calculation is usually when a victim would make an impact statement but no victim was present and interested in making a statement.

The prosecution then made its case for a 28 year sentence. This was not just a case of CSAM, it was a case of direct sexual abuse of the victim. Steen violated the trust of this child repeatedly despite understanding his responsibility to the victim and knowing the damage he was going to cause. Steen’s case was not that unusual in the context of sexual abuse cases in that he had no prior criminal history. The sexual abuse aspect of his crimes is not all that made him dangerous. The possession and distribution of CSAM also makes him a danger to the community because it makes him a danger to girls under the age of 12, which was his preference in CSAM.

It’s undisputed that he is a pedophile attracted to girls under 12 years old and that he has impulse control issues in that area. Despite not abusing any children (that we know of) between the period of his initial disclosure to his wife and his arrest in 2022, the abuse he committed had not just been one instance. It was planned and repeated over years before his wife caught him with CSAM on his computer and confronted him, and only then did he disclose to her. That makes him dangerous.

And he did in fact reoffend by possessing and distributing CSAM even while being watched by his wife who knew he had a problem, trafficking in videos of child rape depicting incest.

The judge interjected to ask if the prosecutor knew how long Steen had been engaged in possession and distribution of CSAM and the prosecutor responded that the only evidence he had began in July of 22 and ended when he was arrested in October of 2022.

The judge then tried to ascertain where Steen worked before he got the job at Bnos Yisroel in 2016 but that wasn’t available on his employment record. It seemed her intention was to determine if he had simply maintained his job there following his disclosure in 2013 or if he had gotten a new job there after that disclosure. The prosecutor and Steen’s lawyer confirmed that he started his job at the school in 2016, three years after his wife caught him and he disclosed his abuse to her.

The prosecutor then continued. Steen was and is a danger. 28 years was needed as a general deterrence to the public to demonstrate that there is a severe penalty for this kind of crime. It promotes respect for the law to have sentences that match the severity of the crime especially since he produced his own CSAM depicting his repeated sexual abuse of a child. 15 – the mandatory minimum – is not enough. The court has the opportunity to send a message that getting away with sexually abusing a child and filming it will be rewarded with a lower sentence.

Some crimes are so severe that they must be punished even if the perpetrator has demonstrated good acts in other areas not relevant to the abuse. Much of the mitigating circumstances were in fact addressed in the plea deal. He already got two years off the 30 years the prosecution could have demanded, and in fact he’s eligible for double what the prosecution was asking for, and other similar offenders have in fact gotten that sentence. He’s already gotten enough of a break on his sentencing without getting only 15 years.

Next the defense presented their case for only a 15 year sentence – the mandatory minimum.

The defense is not asking for a slap on the wrist, and the prosecution’s dismissal of this request for 15 years implies that the mandatory minimum sentence specifically set by congress isn’t good enough. Anything more than 15 years in prison for Steen is tantamount to a life sentence given his age (around 49). He doesn’t have a lot of time outside of his sentence and 15 years is already a tremendous sentence in a difficult prison. Steen’s lawyer pointed out that after 15 years he himself will be dead to underscore how long it was.

The prosecution is treating years like M&Ms but this is actually a long time for him and prison is going to be difficult. This case actually is unique. After his wife found CSAM on his computer, Steen confessed everything to her. Much of what the prosecution knows is only because Steen confessed everything he did to her and asked for help. He was honest and how that honesty is being used against him. He was trying to get better.

(It should be noted that while Steen did disclose what he did to his wife, it was only after he was caught by her with CSAM on his computer, and their way of dealing with it was going to Rabbi Neuberger who covered it up and sent them to an unlicensed therapist for a year for treatment. This could not have worked out better for him. There were essentially no consequences for him following that initial disclosure.)

He is not a danger to people on the street. His problems from 13 years ago didn’t happen again. He is not a danger or menace in person, maybe on a computer when it’s impersonal, engaging with CSAM. Not the kind of danger the prosecution is referring to. There was no new abuse at the school or other victims since 2013. (It should be noted that no evidence of any other victims doesn’t mean they don’t exist. The defense is asserting that there are no victims but no one can know that except Steen.)

Steen isn’t the type of risk people say he is. Sure, he struggles with “keystroke offenses” but nothing since, and nothing was found other than new materials one time during a period of struggling (that took place over at least several months and involved hundreds of pieces of CSAM). The SD card that was found with the CSAM he’d produced as bad as they are were less violent than in normal cases. It’s also usually traded and distributed, and in this case there’s no evidence that he shared the videos he took. It was deleted and never distributed.

When the government found the CSAM Steen produced it was thousands of fragments of a deleted video that had been deleted a long time ago. (Although one has to wonder how in all that time there was so much of the video left on the deleted sections of the SD card almost 10 years after it was produced. Generally an SD card that’s routinely used would have fully overwritten all of the deleted data by that time.)

In the 13 years since his initial disclosure there’s no indication of additional abuse and he has consistently been doing good deeds and helping people in his community. He successfully raised a family with 7 kids, prioritized making sure they got an excellent education, and the only reason he sought a job at the school was not to get access to new victims but to get a discount on tuition he couldn’t otherwise afford to ensure his kids got the best education. In some cases when this kind of crime is exposed hell opens up in the family, but in this case he has a beautiful family that are all very well adjusted. Steen raised them well and his children reflect well on him.

The prosecution in their sentencing memo cited many studies about the effects of sexual abuse but in none of the studies they cited did any of them say that 15 years is less effective a deterrent than 16, or 18, or 20, or 28 years in prison. 15 years in hell is plenty of deterrence. After 15 years he will come back to probation and lifelong supervision where he will be monitored, be given treatment, be subject to regular polygraph testing, and spot checks. They will do a very good job controlling him. The prosecution can’t argue that that’s not sufficient.

While he was in state custody after his arrest he did homework on the phone with his kids every night, and even called his kids’ principal out of concern for his children. He helped fellow inmates giving them books on religion and positive things. He could have sat and done nothing but instead he spent his time helping people. His jail chaplain, Rabbi Sholom Reindorp, even wrote a compelling letter describing how Steen helped his fellow inmates. It speaks to his character that he’s concerned with helping others during the worst time of his life. We want everyone to act the way Steen is acting during their incarceration.

The judge then asked if anyone was present to speak on Steen’s behalf. His wife’s brother spoke about how Steen had taken him in when he was a kid going through a difficult time and supported and helped him. He described dealing with dyslexia as a kid and the time and patience Steen dedicated to helping him prepare for his bar mitzvah. He described Steen as exhibiting intuitive kindness. He described the lengths Steen went to in securing him a scholarship to a Boy Scout camp which he enjoyed greatly. He also described Steen providing him a safe place when his mother was dying, and later helped him buy a ring when he got married.

Next Steen’s brother spoke describing their upbringing and how Steen was always a support for him as they moved from place to place, helping him integrate easily into their new environment. He also discussed a business the two of them started which was struggling and how Steen had wished him the best when he said he’d be leaving for a better opportunity. He then described how Steen had spent time helping someone with terminal cancer finish a book he had been writing ensuring that it got published before he died.

Steen’s mother then spoke asking the judge to take her son’s good deeds into account and saying that she and her husband ask themselves every day how this happened when they tried to raise good children and give them a good life. She said that she goes over every day what mistakes they may have made and feel such guilt over what happened.

Steen’s son also spoke talking about how loving and caring his father was and describing how Steen helped him when he was struggling. He also talked about his own struggles following the arrest and his uncertainty over the future. He described going with Steen to a local grocery to help bring the food nearing expiry to a local food pantry.

Steen’s wife then spoke describing how her husband disclosed to her (after being caught) and asked for help getting treatment. In addressing her decision to stay with him she said that she decided to walk through hell and face it together with him for the health and benefit of the whole family. She said that contrary to the way the prosecution characterized Bergman they actually had top people helping them with extensive treatment in all areas of life which Steen himself spearheaded. She said that in a sense her husband was a better parent than she was because he didn’t raise the kids like a herd but spent time cultivating their specific individual interests and hobbies.

She said that she understood the anger and vitriol of certain groups and a wish for punishment, but that Judaism believes in Teshuva – which is repentance, but deeper – that demands that you look inwards at yourself, reflect, confess, and resolve for the future, which is what Steen did. In prison, she said, he brought a group of men together to elevate themselves and inspired teshuva in his fellow inmates.

Steen himself was asked if he had anything to say, and he used his time to address his family saying that he was so sorry for what he did, that he loved them, and that where he was he would still be with them and be in touch to help with their challenges.

The judge then laid out the factors she considered in rendering her sentence:

  • He had an easy upbringing with no trauma
  • Married 23 years with 7 kids
  • Steady employment
  • No criminal history
  • Letters from friends and family attesting to him being a good member of the community
  • The extremely serious nature of the offenses over so many years
  • The fact that he possessed and distributed hundreds of pieces of CSAM (in light of his previous abuse) causing serious damage and revictimization to the kids depicted on those materials and perpetuated the demand for CSAM
  • The seriousness of his crimes and the need to promote respect for the law
  • General deterrence and specific deterrence for Steen
  • Need to protect the public given the nature of the conduct
  • The sentencing guidelines

The judge then remarked that it was a very sad case with a traumatic effect on the victim, his family, and his community. She pointed out that there wasn’t just one victim but many including the victims of the CSAM he possessed and distributed. Regarding his employment at the school the judge remarked that had his disclosure been handled properly (in other words had anyone who heard it reported it) he would never have been in a position to have gotten that job at the school. Despite there being no evidence of further abuse after that disclosure, he wasn’t cured after one year of therapy.

The judge also remarked that bad conduct doesn’t mean a person is a bad person and Steen clearly has done a lot of good deeds and has a lot of support. Remarking on the collateral damage to his family the judge said that she doesn’t take it lightly but its not relevant given the statutory guidelines.

Given all of these factors, his presentence rehabilitation, good deeds in jail and with his family, and the fact that he accepted responsibility, she sentenced him to 23 years in prison at Fort Dix with lifetime supervised release afterward. She said she hoped he would use this time to help his family and get treatment.  

There were a number of fines he was technically eligible for that he wasn’t sentenced to pay because he was considered indigent, which is noteworthy considering how expensive his lawyers were. They confirmed during the hearing that Steen himself wasn’t paying them. It’s anybody’s guess who was.

Standard

Baltimore Rabbinical Leadership & CHANA Clinical Coordinator, Covered For Steen for 10 Years: Prosecutor

In December of 2023 Zev Steen, a former teacher at Bnos Yisroel in Baltimore, and former head of TAG Baltimore, an internet filtering nonprofit, pled guilty to one count of sexual exploitation for repeatedly raping a child, filming it, and distributing it along with numerous other images and videos of children being sexually abused to a network of pedophiles online. The abuse and filming of his victim occurred in his own house. Steen was found with some of the footage on his person on an SD card at the time of his arrest.

After his initial arrest Steen was granted release on bail, but shortly afterwards was rearrested on more serious charges when the repeated sexual abuse and filming of his victim was discovered in the course of the investigation. After he was remanded to jail for the duration of his case Steen filed a habeas corpus motion to petition the court for bail. In support of his petition Rabbi Shraga Neuberger, a bigwig at Ner Israel and head of an important leading family in Baltimore, wrote a letter attesting to Steen’s character, referring to him as “honest and dependable.”

Some community members, outraged at Neuberger’s public support of Steen, began a petition meant for the court to ask the judge to deny Steen pretrial release. The petition received 364 signatures. It’s unclear whether that factored into the judge’s decision, but Steen’s petition was denied.

In early September of 2024, a former student of Ner Israel reached out to Neuberger to ask him about the letter he’d written in support of Steen. In emails leaked from the conversation Neuberger expresses sympathy for Steen, implying that there’s more to the story, mitigating circumstances unknown to the former student, and the possibility that Steen is not as guilty as he was being made to seem (in other words, what he’d pleaded guilty to).

Ahead of Steen’s sentencing on September 30th his attorneys filed a motion asking the court to allow them to file his sentencing memorandum under seal to protect sensitive information about the case and victim from being made public. The motion mentioned letters of support that had been written on behalf of Steen by his family and members of the community who no doubt wanted their letters to be filed under seal to prevent them from facing scrutiny for their public support of a pedophile. Thankfully the judge denied the motion and ordered that redactions be restricted to “redacting only identities of minors and other similarly sensitive information while otherwise preserving public access to court filings.”

On September 25th the prosecution filed its sentencing memo. Contained within it are additional horrific details about the abuse, as well as sickening details about what Baltimore community leadership knew about Steen’s abuse, when they knew it, and the measures they took to cover it up. Baltimore has outdone itself with this case. When people say that Baltimore is a uniquely dangerous place for children, this case is a perfect example of why.

The sentencing memo begins by detailing what Steen did. Zev Steen sexually abused the victim in this case from when she was 2 years old until she was 8 years old. He videoed his sexual abuse of her at least twice, once in a video depicting the two of them naked in bed where Steen had her sit on top of him so their genitals were touching until he ejaculated. He continued to abuse her repeatedly over the next 6 years.

In another video Steen is shown in bed with the victim, both naked, with her sitting on his torso, her anus and genitals shown, and Steen’s penis in between her legs in contact with her genitals. In some of the images he is shown holding his penis on her buttocks which are covered in his semen. The victim was 5 years old in this video.

Steen was also in possession of numerous images and videos of child sexual abuse materials which he downloaded and uploaded on a peer-to-peer network. The play history on his VLC player showed that he had been watching videos of a 10 year old being sexually abused, a little girl performing oral sex on a man while wearing a collar, a young girl sitting on a toilet being ejaculated on by an adult who makes her lick it off herself, and a video of a young girl being urinated on in a bathtub, among many other disturbing images and videos.

While Steen’s sentencing memo has not yet been filed publicly, the prosecution’s memo includes descriptions of some of the materials which were filed when the motion to seal was filed. Along with his motion he submitted multiple letters of support from family and members of the community along with a video compilation of some of his family and two rabbis in support of lenient sentencing.

One of the big questions surrounding any case like this is why a serial pedophile’s wife would stay with him after she knows that he’s sexually abusing children. This sentencing memo offers some insight in this case as to why Steen’s wife stays with him. The memo states that in 2013 Steen and his wife came to Rabbi Shragi Neuberger and disclosed Steen’s conduct. Neuberger then sent the two of them to a “counselor who had experience in this area.” Neuberger then describes on the video how he supported Mrs. Steen’s decision to remain in the marriage.

How much of that is actually an informed decision and how much of that was pressure from Neuberger is anyone’s guess, but it’s not unreasonable to assume that being told by a very prominent and influential rav in the community that you should stay with your pedophile husband may have had something to do with it. One might also assume from this that Neuberger sent them to a licensed therapist who specializes in the area of sexual abuse of children to perform some kind of official assessment.

As an aside, such an assessment still wouldn’t be grounds to advise a woman to stay married to a pedophile especially when she has children with him, but at least one could understand the rationale. No, the “therapist” Neuberger sent them to was Yehuda Bergman, an unlicensed “drama therapist.” He has no professional specialty in sexual abuse or trauma counseling and does not treat minors.

In May of 2023 Bergman testified before a grand jury about the “therapy” he provided the Steens. He said that he had treated them for a year after Neuberger sent them to him. He also said that Steen had admitted to him that he’d sexually abused his victim over a period of years and stated that the last instance of abuse was “a little bit earlier.” Despite having a duty to report the abuse, Bergman and Neuberger decided not to report the abuse because the consequences would be too difficult for the victim. Right, because being sexually abused and filmed for 5 years wasn’t difficult.

Following this disclosure the victim was sent to a therapist for a year who said that there were no sexual indications at all during her treatment of the victim. The therapist, Laura Greer, an LCSW who serves as clinical coordinator for CHANA, a support organization for victims of abuse, said that she was informed generally that there had been some kind of sexual abuse but was given no further information. She also said that the nature and extent of the abuse was never described to her. She said that she never received a direct disclosure, and never asked. She seems to have adopted a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy regarding the repeated sexual abuse of a child. No report was ever made by her.

Notably in the emails referenced earlier between the former NIRC student and Neuberger, Neuberger makes the claim, by way of trying to minimize what Steen did, that CPS had investigated Steen for sexual abuse in 2013 and that no disclosure had been made to them by his victim. He failed to mention that Steen had disclosed repeatedly sexually abusing her.

Rabbi Mordechai Shuchatowitz, Av Beis Din of the Baltimore Beis din, implied in his video on behalf of Steen that Steen has an “addiction” because of something unhappy in his life. He then opines that Steen did not produce, collect, and distribute CSAM because he wanted to see inappropriate material, but because something was gnawing at or bothering him.

This addiction trope is one that pops up again, and again, and again in sexual abuse cases. Rabbis love characterizing pedophilia and sexual abuse as a “sex addiction” rather than what it is: The criminal urge to rape children. An addiction is something that can be treated or cured. Pedophilia cannot be cured or effectively treated. It’s also an insult to sex addicts to be lumped in the same group as pedophiles. Sex addiction is a real but specific phenomenon where someone is compulsively engaging in consensual sex that is harmful to their lives or relationships. Sexual abuse is another thing entirely.

The frum community tends to use the term sex addiction to describe any kind of sexual activity it doesn’t approve of. This includes watching porn, even if not excessive, masturbation, homosexual intercourse, sex out of wedlock, pedophilia, and sexual assault. An unfortunately popular web forum, Guard Your Eyes, a frum organization that claims to exist for the purpose of helping people with sex addiction, frequently uses the language of addiction for all of those categories – despite them all being radically different from each other.

Shuchatowitz’s rationalization of Steen’s pedophilia also rings disturbingly similar to the excuse Gershom Selinger gave for his sexual abuse of a number of children in his infamous interview with Mendy Pellin. In that video Selinger blames his pedophilia on his wife for not having enough sex with him. To be clear, there is no amount of sex an adult woman can have with a pedophile that will make him no longer a pedophile. Abusers love placing blame on everyone except themselves for their predations, simultaneously offloading blame for the crimes while also forcing their partners to stay with them out of a distorted sense of responsibility to keep them from preying on children. It’s disgusting, and Shuchatowitz is clearly playing into that here.

Later in the video Shuchatowitz says that Steen had admitted to him that he “struggled with a problem” that he had not overcome and that he had slipped “back into certain things.” The level of understanding, limmud zechus, and advocacy someone can get from the Av Beis Din of the Baltimore Beis Din is incredible if they only admit to being a serial sexual abuser of children. And yet, if you’re a victim in Baltimore and you ask your rav if you should report the abuse, chances are you’ll be instructed not to. If you go ahead anyway and report, you can forget about ever getting any help from any of them. Shuchatowitz has never publicly advocated for victims and never will. Yet here he is advocating for a convicted pedophile and blaming it on Steen’s wife.

Later in the video, Neuberger states, in asking the court for leniency, that having Steen separate from his family for a long time is a death sentence to the emotional health of the family, which is a family and can continue as a family the sooner Steen could be in a state of being protected not to hurt anybody else. This from a man who knew for ten years that Steen was an active pedophile and did nothing but cover it up and guilt Steen’s wife into staying with him. “They’ve already gone through hell through all of this,” Neuberger said, “Whatever considerations can be given with balance, I think, is well worth considering.”

Neuberger is the reason that Steen was able to continue procuring and sharing CSAM with his online network of pedophiles, including the videos he had made of himself repeatedly sexually abusing a girl between the ages of 2 and 8. He’s also the one who pushed Steen’s wife to stay with him all those years despite them knowing what he’d done and was doing. And yet, he has the chutzpah to talk about tearing apart a family, as if freeing Steen’s family from him wouldn’t have been the greatest service he could have done for them.

The memo states two things that taken together are heartbreaking. The prosecution writes that the victim herself submitted a sentencing recommendation letter on Steen’s behalf, and also that to date she has never disclosed the abuse directly and has never received any treatment for it.

It’s notable that Steen decided to produce a video to submit in his defense. After all, he was, as we know, an amateur video producer whose videos enjoyed wide distribution. What’s incredible also is the fact that these rabbis continue to submit sentencing recommendation letters even though to date I have yet to ever see a judge indicate that these letters do anything but make them loathe the communities that write them. Over and over again, in case after case, judges have noted with bewilderment the fact that prominent communal leaders write letters on behalf of these abusers while never acknowledging the crimes they committed or expressing any concern for the victims. If anything these letters count against the perpetrator at sentencing, and yet they keep being written.

These people should all be deeply, deeply ashamed of themselves. How Neuberger, Bergman, Shuchatowitz, and Greer live with themselves all these years without the guilt eating them up is anyone’s guess. One wonders if they even have a conscience left to erode at this point.

Standard