BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer
LAKEWOOD — On May 20, 7-month-old Chaim Katzman was buried in Mount Sinai Cemetery.
The fate of Aryeh Katzman, 25, who was charged in the death of his son, is less certain.
According to Executive Assistant Prosecutor Robert A. Gasser, an Ocean County grand jury will hear the evidence against Katzman and decide whether he should be prosecuted for the death of his infant son. Gasser said Assistant Prosecutor John Foti will present the department’s case against Katzman.
Attorney Steven Secare is representing Katzman. When asked for comment on the case, Secare said there was nothing to report.
Chaim was the only child of Katzman and his wife, Malky.
Capt. Robert Lawson, a spokesman for the Lakewood Police Department, said police were called at about 2 p.m. May 20 about trouble with a child. Patrolman Karl Must was dispatched to 134 Powder Horn Drive in New England Village, off Sunset Avenue.
When Must arrived, he found the child in an ambulance and asked the father what had happened, Lawson said. Katzman told Must he normally dropped the child off at the baby sitter’s house before going to school at Beth Medrash Govoha. Katzman said he would then pick up the child in the afternoon.
According to published reports, Katzman also transported the children of other families to the baby sitter’s home that day. Although Katzman dropped off the other children, he left his own baby strapped in the car seat of his vehicle and went to school, according to the reports.
Lawson said Katzman told police that after class had ended he went to pick up his son at the baby sitter’s house, but found him already in the car.
Ambulance emergency medical technicians were unable to revive the child. A doctor pronounced the baby dead at 2:10 p.m.
Lawson said the child had been left in the vehicle for four or five hours. He said the temperature of the enclosed car may have reached 90 degrees or higher, despite the cooler temperature outside.
“Children are much more susceptible to this type of environment than would be an adult,” Lawson said.
Lawson said that after conducting an investigation of the incident, Katzman was arrested and brought to police headquarters.
“We made application to (former) Superior Court Judge Peter J. Giovine for $100,000 bail, with no 10 percent option,” Lawson said. “It was granted.”
Katzman was charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. He was released on the cash bail within two hours after he was arrested, Lawson said.
The captain said the charge carries possible long-term consequences.
“If you are found guilty of a second-degree crime there is a presumption of incarceration,” Lawson said. “A second-degree crime can potentially have a sentence of five to 10 years.”