A man who had a sex abuse case dismissed on a technicality, forged court documents to make it appear as if the case was dismissed because it had no merit. He then used those forged documents as proof of his innocence and in an attempt to be reinstated to his synagogue and the Woodmere Fire Department where he served as commissioner and volunteer EMT. Refusing to stop there, the man then used those same falsified documents to sue the Woodmere Fire Department and Nassau County, citing the falsified documents.
He was seeking a total of $30 million in damages in the two cases.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly called the actions “blatant fraud.”
“Through his actions, Judah Karkowsky launched a brazen attack on the integrity of the criminal justice system,” she said in a statement. “Karkowsky’s earlier sex abuse case had been dismissed on procedural grounds, but he wanted so badly to have the charges dismissed on their merits, that he doctored the court’s official transcript. Karkowsky invented language, attributed it to a sitting District Court judge, and then distributed the fraudulent transcript.”
On September 23, 2021, Judah Karkowsky was arrested for two misdemeanor offenses, including a sex abuse charge. Karkowsky, a former Commissioner of the Woodmere Fire District, and a volunteer EMT in the Woodmere Fire Department, was suspended from the fire department. He was also kicked out of his synagogue.
The case against Karkowsky was dismissed on May 6, 2022, due to a violation of procedural law that requires people to be ready for trial within 90 days of the defendant’s arraignment on the charges.
Karkowsky ordered a copy of the minutes AKA court transcript from the May 6, 2022 court appearance in which Nassau County District Court Judge Douglas Lerose ordered that the case be dismissed and explained the procedural grounds for the dismissal.
Karkowsky sent a picture of a page of the minutes to the co-chairman of the board of trustees at his synagogue that included a sentence that did not appear in the original, official minutes of the proceeding, according to a statement released by the Nassau County District Attorney’s office. The sentence said, “Notwithstanding, this court has believed for some time that the People’s case lacked substance and should not have reached this point.”
The idea was to use the forgery to convince the leadership of the synagogue that his case was dismissed on merit, that he was innocent of the charges, and that he should be welcomed back to the synagogue. Karkowsky was reinstated to the Woodmere Fire Department after his case was dismissed but was not allowed to return to the synagogue.
Not satisfied, Karkowsky took his fraud further and filed lawsuits against Nassau County and the Woodmere Fire Department.
On August 4, 2022, Karkowsky sued both the Woodmere Fire District and Fire Department seeking $15 million in compensation, claiming that members of the fire department caused him to be falsely arrested. The notice quoted the fraudulent statement attributed to Judge Lerose from the May 6, 2022 minutes as evidence of Karkowsky’s innocence. Karkowsky swore before a Public Notary to the contents of the statements. Then, on August 1, 2022, Karkowsky served Nassau County seeking another $15 million in compensation, alleging that members of the Nassau County Police Department and Nassau County District Attorney’s Office willfully ignored exculpatory evidence. Again, Karkowsky made a false statement about the comments made by Judge Lerose on May 6, 2022.
Karkowsky was arrested on November 9, 2022 for falsifying court documents and was convicted on April 18, 2024 after a jury trial of 2nd degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, three counts of 1st degree offering a false instrument for filing in the First Degree, and two counts of 1st degree making an apparently sworn false statement, all felonies.
Karkowsky is due back in court for sentencing on June 20, 2024, and faces up to 2-1/3 to 7 years in prison.
Donnelly said that Karkowsky was brash in pursuing these lawsuits knowing that the court documents were falsified, pushing to go to trial despite the existence of an audio recording of the dismissal proceedings that clearly and concretely refuted his sham and exposed his guilt.
“I will not stand for our system of justice – that I hold sacred – to ever be manipulated or exploited as was this defendant’s intention,” said Donnelly.
Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA
