Challenges #MeToo Movement’s “#BelieveAllWomen” Hashtag, Claims Defamation, False Arrest and Malicious Prosecution
New York—February 28, 2024 – Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea & LoTurco, LLP, a boutique criminal defense and civil rights firm with offices in New York City and on Long Island, today announced it has filed a civil rights action charging defamation, false arrest and malicious prosecution, among other charges, against Nassau County, the District Attorney of Nassau County, the accuser, Celine Boulben, and others on behalf of their client, Yossef Kahlon, who was wrongfully accused of rape and aggravated sexual abuse, and criminal sexual acts in August 2021.
“The days of men simply enduring false allegations of sexual assault or rape are over. Today, Yossef Kahlon fights back for himself and for others whose lives have been ruined by false allegations of sex abuse or rape,” said founding partner, Bruce Barket.
The lawsuit, filed in Nassau Supreme Court by Bruce Barket, Kevin Kearon, Danielle Muscatello, and Alexander Klein, Esqs., of Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea & LoTurco, LLP, seeks both compensatory and punitive damages.
Kevin Kearon, founding partner and attorney for Mr. Kahlon, said, “A false accusation of rape is the worst type of false accusation. It destroys a man’s life and reputation, and that is what happened here. This lawsuit puts the spotlight on the accuser, the organizations who put pressure on the District Attorney’s office to bring false charges, and the prosecutors who decided to pursue this case, despite clear evidence that the accuser had lied, and despite the police department’s determination that no crime had occurred. In doing so, they ruined an innocent man’s life. He now seeks to reclaim his reputation and compensation for the harm this malicious prosecution wrecked on his life.”
After the indictment, Mr. Kahlon’s mugshot was widely disseminated by law enforcement press releases accusing him of being a rapist who “brutalized” his so-called victim, and suggesting that there were other victims. The horrific charges were reported widely in the New York metro media, including in Newsday, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, internationally in the Jerusalem Post, and other news outlets. He faced 25 years in prison if convicted.
As a result of the indictment and media attention driven by the prosecutors, Mr. Kahlon’s reputation was destroyed before he had an opportunity to defend himself. He was acquitted of the false charges after a jury trial in Nassau County in October 2023, more than two full years after the false allegation.
“It is not only the men who are falsely accused who are harmed, but women who are true victims. If women in the #MeToo Movement wonder why many don’t believe their allegations, they need look no further than cases like this, where the evidence unmistakably establishes consent,” Danielle Muscatello, one of the trial lawyers on the criminal case, said.
Conceding that, on occasion, the #MeToo Movement has been a force for good, the attorneys for Mr. Kahlon made the important point in the filed complaint that in many cases, actual sexual assault victims have been emboldened by the #MeToo Movement to stand up and name their abusers—offering a powerful step forward in the national conversation about sex, gender equality, and power.
But in a stubborn minority of cases, as in this one, the movement has empowered accusers to convert sexual regret or opportunism into claims of sexual assault or rape—using the megaphone of #MeToo to cast consensual partners as predators, while ruining their targets’ lives, careers, and reputations.
As stated in the complaint:
When these false accusations are made to police or prosecutors, they cast law enforcement agents down a pathway of troubling incentive structures. Even where evidence of consensual sex is clear, they have little to gain by turning away an alleged “victim” in favor of an accused sexual predator—and much to lose by way of public outrage. In these false accusation cases, then, the incentive structure for certain prosecutors is to err on the side of bringing erroneous criminal charges even when doing so ignores the evidence and violates the rights of the accused.
This case arises from an unfortunate but clear example of this incentive-structure phenomenon. It involves a knowingly false accusation of rape made by a woman, who met Mr. Kahlon on the Sugar daddy/Sugar baby dating website, Seeking.com, who admitted to the police that her qualm was over money rather than consent; a pressure campaign by lawyers and/or various organizations to have the woman treated as a “Me Too” victim; and, ultimately, a relent by agents of the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, who, rather than face the pressure spawned by turning away this obviously hollow claim, conspired with the false accuser and her supporters to embellish the allegations well enough to ready them for showtime.
The false accuser, Ms. Boulben, initiated contact with Mr. Kahlon in January 2021 through Seeking.com, a so-called sugar daddy/sugar baby dating website that facilitated introductions of wealthy, usually older men to younger women in need of financial assistance.
Over the course of the next several days, the two exchanged a series of text messages and had a FaceTime conversation and agreed to meet. They further agreed that Mr. Kahlon would send an Uber car, on his account and at his expense, to pick up Ms. Boulben at a location she selected and drive her to his home. A consensual sexual experience followed.
Ultimately, in October 2023, a Nassau County jury rejected Ms. Boulben’s accusations that she did not consent to the sexual activity that followed, and Mr. Kahlon was acquitted of the charges.
Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea & LoTurco, LLP is recognized nationally as a leader in criminal defense, personal injury law, appellate, commercial litigation, and civil rights issues. With more than 200 years of experience and a team of former prosecutors, public defenders, exonerees and judges, BEKAL is uniquely capable of representing clients in an array of complex legal matters. The firm has offices in Manhattan, Garden City and Huntington, New York. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @barketepstein.
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