EAST BRUNSWICK – Officials have charged a rabbi from East Brunswick and two people from New York in connection with the alleged human trafficking and prostitution of a 17-year-old girl from Pennsylvania.
Aryeh Goodman, 35, of East Brunswick, has been charged with one count of engaging in prostitution with a child and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
While Goodman was performing in a religious capacity at a Jewish religious center out of his home in East Brunswick, and may have affiliation with another center on Lexington Avenue in the township, he and his center are not affiliated with the Chabad Lubavitch movement, according to a statement from Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Chief James Conroy of the East Brunswick Police Department.
Goodman turned himself in at the East Brunswick Police Department on Feb. 6 accompanied by his attorney, officials said.
Officials said Gabriella Colon, 18, and Richard Ortiz, 23, both of the Bronx, N.Y., have been charged with 11 criminal counts including human trafficking, conspiracy to commit human trafficking, promoting prostitution of a child, conspiracy to promote prostitution of a child, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal restraint, and child pornography offenses that include the manufacture, distribution and possession of pornography.
Colon and Ortiz were located at a motel in Fort Lee on Feb. 16, according to the statement. As of Feb. 19, they were being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick, pending a detention hearing.
The investigation determined Colon and Ortiz allegedly sold the sexual services of a 17-year-old girl from Lancaster, Pa., to approximately 30 men between Jan. 1 and Feb. 2 at a hotel in East Brunswick.
The investigation revealed that on Feb. 1, Goodman allegedly engaged in sexual relations with the 17-year-old girl at a hotel in East Brunswick, officials said.
According to a Pennsylvania State Police report obtained in 2013, a 23-year-old male told authorities in the summer of 2012 that he had been assaulted by Goodman when he was 12 years old and attending Camp Menachem in Pike County, Pa., in 2001. Goodman was a counselor at the camp and would have been about 18 years old.
Regarding that incident, Goodman was charged with 12 counts of indecent assault of a juvenile. Under Pennsylvania state law, indecent assault is considered a first degree misdemeanor since the complainant was under the age of 13 at the time of the alleged assault.
Goodman faced five years in prison on each count in connection with that incident. Neither Goodman’s attorney at the time, Michael E. Weinstein of Milford, Pa., nor the Pike County District Attorney’s Office could be reached by press time.
Anyone with information regarding the current allegations involving Goodman is asked to contact Detective Chris Farrace or Detective Dan Unkel of the East Brunswick Police Department at 732-390-6900 or Detective Mark Morris of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-745-4194.
