Former rabbi pleads guilty to sexting underage boy via Grindr
Aryeh Leiv Cohen, 44 was a rabbi and youth outreach worker in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park
A former rabbi has pleaded guilty to sending sexual messages to someone he believed to be underage via Grindr.
Aryeh Leiv Cohen, 44, was a rabbi and youth outreach worker at the Minneapolis Community Kollel, a Jewish learning center in the suburb of St. Louis Park.
Police caught Cohen in a sting operation run in conjunction with the Minnesota Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force. Cohen believed he was sending messages to a 15-year-old boy on Grindr. However, he was actually exchanging messages with an undercover agent.
‘I sort of deserve it’
Although the agent Cohen messaged indicated he’d turn 16 in August, Cohen still sent him an explicit image and suggested meeting up. Cohen acknowledged, ‘It’s a little illegal’ in his messages. When a meet up at Cohen’s apartment was arranged last February, police turned up and arrested him.
‘I sort of deserve it,’ Cohen is reported to have told officers when arrested.
When news of the arrest broke, he was immediately relieved of his duties at the Kollel.
Last Friday he amended his plea to guilty on one count of engaging in electronic communication describing sexual conduct with a child.
He will be sentenced on 16 January 2020.
LOSTMESSIAH 