By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Sentencing was postponed to next month for the rabbi from East Windsor who had been accused of sexual assault and pleaded guilty to lesser offenses.
Menachem Chinn, 41, was due in a Mercer County courtroom Friday, but that was pushed back to Dec.8. He is due to have a hearing that day on what the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office called a “possible monitoring violation.”
“We were notified by the court of a possible monitoring violation, which will be appropriately addressed at his next court hearing …,” said Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Casey A. DeBlasio by email Friday.
Chinn’s lawyer, Steven D. Altman, said Friday that Chinn is wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, and incidentally went past the address of one of his victims, in a situation he cannot avoid, the attorney offered.
“For him to leave his home, there’s no way, logistically, for him to leave his home or go to synagogue or go shopping or go anywhere without passing by this address,” Altman said. “It’s incidental. The probation department has been aware of it. They know there’s no other way around it, because if you tell him he can’t it’s like me leaving New Brunswick and I can’t pass over Route One.”
Chinn has admitted sexually exploiting two boys, one in November 2005 and again in April 2012, when they were younger than 13 years old. In the earlier case, the crime took place at the Shalom Torah Academy, where Chinn had been a teacher, while the 2012 offense happened in Chinn’s home.
In July, Chinn pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. He is due to get two suspended five-year-prison terms as part of the plea deal he took from the Prosecutor’s Office.
