Original Blog Entry: Lawyer charged with impersonating Dead Sea Scrolls expert

truesee — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:59:50 GMT

Manhattan lawyer Raphael Golb charged with impersonating Dead Sea Scrolls expert rejects plea offer

Melissa Grace

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, August 6th 2010, 3:50 PM

Siegel for NewsRaphael Golb rejects no-jail plea offer in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday.

It's was a virtual deal-breaker.

A Manhattan lawyer charged with impersonating Dead Sea Scrolls experts on the Internet turned down a no-jail plea offer - because he'd have to stop posting on line.

That means the case against Raphael Golb, a real-estate lawyer turned amateur religious scholar, is headed to trial in September.

Prosecutors say Golb created dozens of e-mail accounts in other people's names and used the accounts to harass academic enemies of his father, an expert on the scrolls.

They offered the son 80 hours of community service if he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors - and the judge said three years probation would have to be a condition.

Golb turned it down because probation would bar him from contacting his victims - including posting on blogs where the scrolls' origins are debated.

If someone is giving a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls, can the complainants and Raphael go? said his lawyer, Ron Kuby If they're both on a blog, is that contact?

They're past treading on Mr. Golb's free speech rights, Kuby said. They're stomping on Mr. Golb's free speech right with big, thick boots.

The elder Golb believes that the Dead Sea Scrolls, the earliest surviving copies of biblical texts, came from Jerusalem.

The traditional view is that that they were written in Qumran, near the Dead Sea, where they were first discovered in 1947.

The people his son allegedly impersonated includes Dr. Lawrence Schiffman, a professor at New York University's Hebrew Judiac Studies Department.

Prosecutors said Golb created the email address larry.schiffman@gmail.com and used it to send bogus messages in which Schiffman purportedly admitted to plagiarism.

Kuby said even if he did send the email under the name Schiffman, it would be protected by the Constitution.

Do you have any idea how many Sarah Palins there are? he demanded. How many Michael Bloombergs there are?

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/08/06/2010-08-06_manhattan_lawyer_raphael_golb_charged_with_impersonating_dead_sea_scrolls_reject.html#ixzz0vsgbW0hu

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