Rabbi Levitt sentenced to 10 years probation for abusing three boys in Boston in 1975-76

By Wesley Lowery, Globe Correspondent

A one-time religious instructor for a prominent Brookline school today was sentenced to 10 years probation for sexually abusing three of his students in Boston during the 1975-1976 school year.

The probation sentence was imposed on Rabbi Stanley V. Levitt by Suffolk Superior Court Judge Geraldine Hines one day after Levitt pleaded guilty in the Boston courthouse to four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child.

He faced up to 40 years imprisonment if given the maximum, and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office today asked Hines to imprison Levitt for 2½ years. But Hines refused the request from prosecutors, saying from the bench that she was going to adhere to a plea agreement that was reached last fall between prosecutors and Levitt’s defense attorney, Scott Curtis.

According to Suffolk prosecutors, two of the assaults took place at Levitt’s home on Chiswick Road in Brighton; the third occurred while the child was recuperating at Boston Children’s Hospital. All three victims were boys, two were 11 years old at the time.

Hines’s disposition angered one of Levitt’s victims.

“He should have served jail time,” said Michael Brecher, 49, who testified that Levitt groped him when Levitt visited him while he was at Children’s Hospital.

Levitt, 66, shook his head in disagreement as two of the victims read impact statements today.

At the time of the assaults during the 1975-76 school year, Levitt worked at the Maimonides School where the victims were then sixth grade students.

The Globe has reported that after leaving Massachusetts in 1980, Levitt was charged with molesting three boys in Philadelphia. In the first of those cases, Levitt was found not guilty. In the second case, he pleaded no contest and received a five-year sentence of probation. The third allegation was withdrawn.

As part of his sentence, Levitt must register as a sex offender, and may not have unsupervised contact with children under the age of 17.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney who has repeatedly sued the Boston Archdiocese for cases of sexual abuse by priests, said today he will pursue a civil suit against Levitt and the Maimonides School.