Child Sex Charges Against ‘Chopped’ Kosher Chef From Teaneck Dismissed | Teaneck Daily Voice
Shalom Yehudiel, 41, had his rights violated by the FBI when federal authorities failed to surrender a video, Bergen County Superior Court Judge Christopher Kazlau ruled.
The judge dismissed the charges on Monday, Aug. 7, with prejudice – which allows prosecutors to reinstate the case if any new evidence comes to light.
A longtime hero in North Jersey’s Jewish community, “Sal” Yehudiel became the first contestant to observe kosher dietary laws on the Food Network series “Chopped.”
He had owned and operated The Humble Toast, a popular kosher eatery on Queen Anne Road, for several years before adding a second restaurant, La Cucina Di Nava.
The Israeli-American entrepreneur drew praise for giving back to the community — donating food to local soup kitchens, among other philanthropic acts — and even posted his phone number on social media during the COVID pandemic for those in need of a hot meal to call him directly.
Then came a pair of lawsuits filed in Superior Court in Hackensack.
In one, a woman who’d worked at the Humble Toast accused Yehudiel of making lewd comments and forcing her to give him oral sex in his office when she was 17.
A second woman said he groped and forcibly kissed her as part of a two-year series of assaults that began after she met him at a Fair Lawn temple when she was 15.
Yehudiel’s attorney at the time called the suits “false and frivolous,” characterizing them as extortion attempts that are “absolutely baseless and defamatory in nature” and part of a campaign of “hate, prejudice and discrimination.”
Protestors turned up at his deli in late 2021 as word of the suits spread. Yehudiel denied the allegations in counterclaims against the women.
The Rabbinical Council of Bergen County announced soon after that Yehudiel was stepping away from both of his restaurants “until this matter is resolved.”
He ended up selling both eateries in September 2022.
Yehudiel had been criminally charged six months earlier with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a victim between 13 and 16 years old, sexual assault of a victim 16-17 and child endangerment.
The charges followed a referral from the FBI, county authorities said at the time.
Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella issued a statement:
“On Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, the FBI contacted the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit regarding the alleged sexual assault of a child. A months-long investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the FBI revealed that Yehudiel sexually assaulted the child, who was younger than 16 years old, in Teaneck, on more than one occasion.
“As a result of the investigation, Yehudiel was arrested in Newark on Wednesday March 16 [2022], and charged with various sex assault crimes.”
Yehudiel spent a week in the Bergen County Jail before a judge freed him pending trial.
That ordeal ended Monday, Aug. 7, at the very same courthouse in Hackensack.
Kazlau, the judge, ruled that prosecutors improperly obtained a grand jury indictment by omitting certain evidence.
Namely, Kazlau said, they provided two video clips obtained by the FBI instead of a comprehensive file from the entire time the alleged victim had worked at the restaurant.
She contended that the sexual contact began during her third day on the job.
The judge emphasized that it wasn’t the fault of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office because the clips came from the FBI.
Prosecutors actually share the defense’s desire to see the entire video, Kazlau said, because neither side knows what’s on it.
Whether the complete video implicates or exonerates Yehudiel is beyond the point, the judge said. That it was withheld violates Yehudiel’s due-process rights, he said.
It remains to be seen whether the FBI surrenders the video – and, if so, whether what’s on it prompts prosecutors to refile their charges or drop the case.
Musella, the prosecutor, hasn’t addressed the decision. Yehudiel hasn’t spoken publicly about it, either.
Defense attorneys Lee Vartan and Zach Intrater issued a statement on his behalf: “We are pleased with the court’s decision, which vindicates Shalom’s due process rights, and we are grateful that the court carefully considered and accepted our arguments.”
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