Charges dismissed against Reuven Kahane, NY rabbi and developer accused of hitting protesters with his car
Prosecutors drop charges in incident that drew widespread attention as university protests rocked campus.
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By Luke Tress December 5, 2024 4:43 pm
All charges have been dismissed against a Manhattan rabbi and real estate developer who had been accused of ramming his vehicle into pro-Palestinian protesters in May.
Charges were also dropped against two protesters who were arrested at the scene.
Reuven Kahane had been arrested and accused of assault after the altercation with the demonstrators, who were protesting outside the Upper East Side home of a University trustee.
The protesters were affiliated with CApartheid Divest, an alliance of anti-Israel student groups that had characterized the incident in a press release as “Zionist driver runs down peacefuldemonstration.”
Police said at the time that an argument had broken out between Kahane and the protesters as the protesters were leaving the scene, and that Kahane had “tapped” one of the demonstrators with his car. Kahane said he had shouted at protesters banging on his car.
Police arrived a few minutes later and arrested Kahane and two of the activists, , and John Rozendaal, 63, for criminal mischief.
Now, the case against Kahane has been dismissed. The New York State Unified Court System confirmed that the case had been dismissed last month pursuant to speedy trial limitations that stipulate a trial must take place within a certain amount of time after the incident. The case no longer appears in court records.
Kahane says that the charges against him were baseless.
“Nothing whatsoever that they accused me of happened,” he said in an interview on Wednesday, saying that the case had been “completely dismissed and sealed.”
Reuven Kahane. (Courtesy)
and Rozendaal also had their charges dropped. Following the May arrest, a fundraiser for Novak, identifying her as a “safety marshal” for protesters, raised more than $11,000.
Rozendaal had previously been arrested in March for disrupting an Easter service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral as part of protest. None of the student protesters on the scene were charged.
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