New Haven Rabbi Daniel Greer Sued for Allegedly Sexually Assaulting Teen

NEW HAVEN, CT - Rabbi Daniel Greer, leader of Yeshiva of New Haven, Inc. and The Gan School, Inc., was sued by a former student in federal court Tuesday of alleged "violent sexual abuse" that went on "unabated for years."

Greer, also a former New Haven Police Commissioner, is being sued by Eliyahu Mirlis, who as a child attended the Yeshiva and school.

“Dozens and dozens of times for a period of years, Greer sexually assaulted and abused a young boy in his care," said Mirlis' Bridgeport-based attorney, Antonio Ponvert III, in a statement provided to Patch. "He was in his 60’s. The victim was a teenager. The complaint describes a child-molester who, as all child-molesters do, preyed on a vulnerable child.”

Mirlis now lives in New Jersey, which is why the lawsuit was filed federally. In addition to Greer, the Yeshiva and school are also named defendants.

“Greer has never been criminally punished. He has never taken responsibility. This lawsuit will force him to answer for his crimes,” added Ponvert, of the firm Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder.

The allegations against Greer as described in the lawsuit are shocking, including "forced fellatio, anal sex, fondling and masturbation.”

Beginning in the fall of 2002, when Mirlis was a 15-year-old high school sophomore, Greer is accused of "repeatedly and continuously sexually" abusing, exploiting and assaulting the teenager, acts that allegedly continued through Mirlis' junior and senior years.

Greer also is accused of frequently giving Mirlis alcohol and showing him pornographic films as he was allegedly raping and assaulting him, according to the lawsuit. The assaults allegedly occurred at Greer's home, at school-owned properties and in motels in the greater New Haven area and in Pennsylvania.

Attorney William Ward, who is representing Greer, told the Hartford Courant that while he had yet to see the lawsuit, he questions why Mirlis waited 14 years to file the motion, and why during that period he praised Greer on numerous occasions as helping him.

Additionally, Ward said he wonders why the plaintiff went to an attorney seeking damages, and not to a rabbinical arbitration court for justice. Ponvert III states that the lawsuit is seeking “unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.”

The lawsuit states that “senior administrators and officials” of the Gan School either knew of the abuse, or should have known, but did nothing to stop it.

As a result of the alleged abuse, the lawsuit states that Mirlis suffers from “mental, psychiatric, and emotional injuries, some or all of which are permanent, including severe emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, pain and anguish, anxiety, panic, sexual dysfunction, PTSD, depression, hyper-vigilance, shame, and low self-esteem.”

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