It's now been about three hours since the news broke that charges against the Gilbert rabbi accused of raping a 7-year-old girl have been dropped, and we're still yet to see any other news outlets -- many of which were quick to publicize his arrest in March -- reporting on the matter.
So in our continued effort to publicize his vindication to the same degree that many news agencies publicized his arrest, we did a little digging and got some new details about the situation.
As we reported earlier, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office dropped charges against Rabbi Bryan Bramly, of Temple Beth Shalom Synagogue in Chandler.
We spoke to Bramly's lawyer in New York, Michael Shapiro, who says the D.A.'s office dropped the case after conducting a further investigation into the allegations and finding there was not enough evidence to go forward.
"Where was this investigation before he was so publicly arrested," Shapiro asks.
Shapiro says prosecutors found several inconsistencies with the victim's story. On top of the less-than-adequate initial investigation, and the inconsistencies, Shapiro says prosecutors were also presented with the results of a polygraph test Bramly took.
While lie-detector tests don't exactly hold up in court, it seemed to tell prosecutors that their case might be as air-tight as they originally thought.
As for Bramly's gig as the rabbi at Temple Beth Shalom, his Phoenix attorney, Richard Thomas, tells New Times he is yet to be vindicated in the eyes of the temple's board of trustees.
We asked if the rumors that the temple didn't renew the rabbi's contract because of the rape allegations were true, and Thomas says there's more to it than that.
"I think there were various people who assumed the rabbi was guilty of something he was not, and now they should feel some remorse," Thomas says.
Thomas says he's still trying to work out some of the internal problems between Bramly and the temple but, for now, Bramly has no plans to sue.
Thomas wouldn't say whether Bramly even wanted to continue working at Temple Beth Shalom. Bramly may take his show on the road.
"The rabbi just wants to put this behind him and be a rabbi," Thomas says.
We're still workin' on having a chat with the rabbi himself.
