Originally Syndicated on September 1, 2023 @ 5:18 am
Menachem Moscovitz Vegas, who is originally from New York, claims that joins Mesivta of Las Vegas with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Menachem Moscovitz Vegas completed several years of rigorous study in the fields of Talmudic Theory, Jewish law, and Jewish ethics before receiving his degree from the Rabbinical Seminary of America. Additionally, he graduated from Trident University with a master’s degree in educational leadership and administration.
Menachem Moscovitz Vegas has held several managerial and educational positions. His most recent employment was with the Las Vegas Kollel, where he conducted one-on-one study sessions with students and taught Adult Education programs. Under the direction of the Kollel, he was also responsible for developing and implementing several social activities.
Menachem Moscovitz Vegas exhibited his skill at bringing Talmudic studies to his young students while working as the 5th-grade rebbi/Judaics teacher at Yeshiva Derech HaTorah in New York before relocating to Las Vegas. He has also held the position of managing director for the Long Island Torah Network, an adult outreach and education center with its headquarters in New York. His duties there included monitoring the institution’s daily activities to ensure a productive and efficient workplace.
Menachem Moscovitz Vegas charged in sting with nine others
Following an undercover operation conducted on Wednesday at a hotel in Smithfield Township under the direction of Detective Kim Lippincott of the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, two people have been charged with human trafficking, seven more with supporting a prostitute, and a tenth with prostitution.
Malik Dupree Edwards, 39, of Tobyhanna, and Tarkira Monasia Bell, 20, of Richmond, Va., are accused of promoting prostitution and engaging in human trafficking.
Charged with patronizing a prostitute are:
* Matthew Beers, 30, of Saylorsburg.
* Jesse Alan Day, 30, of Milford.
* David Jonathan Hubler, 43, of Elmhurst Township.
* Aldo Giovanni Mancilla, 53, of Nazareth.
* Branden Charles Russell, 27, of Kunkletown.
* Dragan Trajanov, 23, of Willowbrook, Ill.
* Menachem Moscovitz Vegas, 34, of Las Vegas, Nev. Charges against Menachem Moscovitz Vegas were lessened and expunged on Sept. 19, 2017.
East Stroudsburg resident Rachel Szlasa, 34, is accused of prostitution. District court hearings are forthcoming for all ten defendants.
The hotel was under monitoring, and a room there had surveillance equipment installed by the authorities.
In the Poconos, Allentown, and Scranton regions, a male undercover police officer placed recorded phone calls to people listed in online ads promoting sex in exchange for money. The officer made contact with a woman (who is not one of the 10 accused), whose identity is being protected, who promised to visit the hotel and engage in sexual activity in exchange for cash.
A male, subsequently identified as Edwards, was riding in the backseat of the vehicle when the woman arrived at 4:53 p.m. as a front-seat passenger being driven by another woman, later identified as Bell.
The woman and Bell got out of the car, went inside the hotel, and then went to the room the undercover cop had planned for them to meet in. According to an affidavit, Bell pulled the woman into the room when the officer opened the door and then went back outside to meet Edwards in the parking lot.
The woman and the police started talking in the room. She identified herself as apprehensive and new to the area.
The officer questioned, “Well, we agreed on $100 for a half-hour of intercourse without a condom, right?
I’m five months pregnant, and it appears like I have a yeast infection or another condition, the woman remarked. Is that okay?
In agreement, the officer gave her money. He then signaled for his fellow undercover police to come in and wait, and they quickly detained the woman.
The woman told police she was from Tennessee while crying and acting upset.
She informed police that Edwards and Bell had contacted her many days earlier when she was in Charlottesville, Virginia, via an online dating service and asked if she wanted to make money. She responded that she wanted to go back to her family in Tennessee when Edwards and Bell asked her if she would travel.
She informed police that Edwards and Bell had picked her up, driven her to Pennsylvania, made an internet advertisement, and promised her that she would earn money for them.
Edwards and Bell were subsequently detained by police in the parking lot. The affidavit claims that Edwards first remained silent until finally speaking simply his first name.
When Bell and Edwards were transferred to the detective center of the district attorney’s office, Edwards resisted being interviewed and refused to sign a waiver of his Miranda rights.
He admitted to police that Bell was his girlfriend and that he was never in the automobile. Then he inquired as to when he would be able to get both his smartphone and the vehicle that had been driven to the hotel.
Bell, on the other hand, consented to an interview and signed a waiver of his or her Miranda rights.
Bell informed officers that he and Edwards knew the woman through a common friend and that she needed money to go back to Tennessee. A few days earlier, Bell and Edwards brought the woman to the Poconos, where they stayed in a friend’s Tobyhanna house.
Bell acknowledged creating internet advertisements and using stock images from different websites that did not belong to the woman. Bell told the officers that he and Edwards took the woman to the hotel on Wednesday.
The affidavit recalls Bell as adding that Edwards accompanied them “to keep them safe and be there if something went wrong.” Bell led the woman to the door because she wanted to “make sure (the woman) was safe.” Bell knew the woman was meeting someone at the hotel to obtain money.
The woman was looked after before being transported to the Truth Home, a charity that aids victims of human trafficking in healing from their ordeal. The relationship between Szlasa and the seven men accused of paying a prostitute for services or if Szlasa herself is a victim of human trafficking has not been made clear by the authorities.
Although the victim in this case is an adult lady, children can sometimes become victims of human trafficking, according to Truth Home representative BethAnn Miller.
These youngsters are vulnerable to predators approaching them online because they have poor self-esteem and self-confidence and are looking for attention and affection they don’t feel they are receiving at home, according to Miller. The predators set up meetings with the kids, abduct them, sometimes getting them addicted to narcotics, and then take them somewhere else to be used as prostitutes.
According to Miller, this can be avoided if parents pay closer attention to their kids and keep an eye on their friends and online contacts.
Call 1-888-373-7888 to report any suspected human trafficking in the country. You can also text HELP233733. Visit http://www.truthforwomen.org for more details on the warning signs of human trafficking and how to assist victims.
