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Goldstein faces sexual
assault charges stemming from
two separate incidents with
two different women.

Goldstein’s defense attor-
ney, Perry de Marco Sr., plans
to argue against the motion
filed by the Philadelphia dis-
trict attorney’s office to consol-
idate the two cases.

Ben Waxman, director of
communications for the DA’s
office, declined to say why the
office filed the motion, but
de Marco Sr. offered his own
explanation. “If you got two weak cases,
you put them together to try
to make one strong case,” de
Marco Sr. said. “That’s why you
do it, because these are not
strong cases.”
De Marco Sr. also said that
Goldstein “has been system-
atically prejudiced in this case
from the very beginning,”
noting that he was arrested at
the airport on his way to a
Birthright trip and that the
DA’s office had initially asked
for his bail to be set at $10 mil-
lion, which de Marco said is
significantly higher than what
the guidelines suggest.

“He’s been prejudiced at
every turn, and why is that?” De
Marco Sr. said. “I don’t know
why. Is it because his name is
Goldstein? Is that why? Because
I haven’t seen this done with
anybody else from any other
heritage, to be honest with you.

Is he being made an example of
for some reason, or is he being
used for political gain?”
At Temple University, Greek
life members have been grap-
pling with campus sexual
assault since the investigation
and subsequent suspension of
the university’s AEPi chapter,
WHYY reported on Feb. 16.

Greek life chapters have joined
efforts to raise awareness about
sexual assault on campus,
including hosting workshops
and speakers on sexual assault
and healthy relationships.

“Yes, it’s a stereotype, but
it does happen, and it’s a place
where things are more likely
to happen,” Pi Lambda Phi
member Alex Derbyshire told
WHYY. “I want to make sure
that we’re not playing into that
stereotype.” Synagogue Urinator
Judge Vincent Johnson will
determine whether to grant a
motion to withdraw Sheidali
Dzhalilov’s guilty plea at a
hearing scheduled for Feb. 28.

On Nov. 8, Dzhalilov
pleaded guilty to urinating on
the entryway to Congregation
Beth Solomon in the early
hours of Aug. 13, 2017. He
pleaded guilty to charges of
ethnic intimidation, desecra-
tion of a place of worship and
institutional vandalism. He
faces as much as 11 years in
prison and $22,000 in fines.

Since then, he has acquired a
new attorney, Lonny Fish, who
has filed a motion to withdraw
the guilty plea for the charge of
ethnic intimidation. Assistant
District Attorney Brendan
Flynn said the district attorney
will oppose the motion.

Fish said he is planning to
argue that Dzhalilov was too
drunk the night of the inci-
dent to have had the malice
required for ethnic intimida-
tion. He is not, he emphasized,
disputing that Dzhalilov com-
mitted the act.

“He is guilty of some
offense,” Fish said. “It doesn’t
change the offensive nature of
it. It doesn’t change any of that.

The people that were offended
can still be offended by it.”
At the plea hearing on Nov.

8, Johnson asked Dzhalilov a
series of questions to deter-
mine his competency. Despite
that, Fish said that Dzhalilov
is not a lawyer and didn’t fully
understand. During the hearing, Flynn
provided a summary of the
incident at the synagogue
and said that tips had identi-
fied Dzhalilov as also having
a Facebook account under the
name Ali Ahiska. On Oct. 17,
Ari Goldstein is facing two sets of
sexual assault charges.

Photo provided
Heather Barbera is facing charges
of two counts of first-degree
murder. Office of the Atlantic County Prosecutor
2005, this Facebook account
shared a video from a page called
“Images of Palestine” and wrote,
“This video makes me wanna
kill every single Jew out there,
finish what Hitler couldn’t.”
Ventnor City Murders
Heather Barbera’s ini-
tial disposition conference is
scheduled for Feb. 21, when
the prosecutor and defense
attorney will discuss the case
and schedule dates for the next
steps in the process.

Barbera is facing charges of
two counts of first-degree mur-
der, third-degree possession of
a weapon for an unlawful pur-
pose and first-degree robbery,
stemming from the deaths of
her mother, Michelle Gordon,
and grandmother, Elaine
Rosen, in July.

In October, she was indicted
and pleaded not guilty.

Barbera’s uncle, Richard
Rosen, discovered his mother
and sister’s bodies in their
Ventnor City, N.J. condo-
minium. Rosen said in August
that he immediately thought his
niece had committed the act.

He said Barbera had been
living with them for several
months, since her second mar-
riage failed.

In 2016, Barbera was
charged with assault and defi-
ant trespass.

“They were nice, quiet peo-
ple. They didn’t bother anyone,”
Rosen said. “It was nice of them
to even take her in because she
had nowhere else to go.”
The Leonard Law Group,
which represents Barbera,
has not responded to multiple
requests for comment.

Parkway Flag Vandalism
Police are still looking for
the person who vandalized the
Israeli flag on the Benjamin
Franklin Parkway last May.

The DA’s office posted a
video of the suspect spraying
the flag with a red substance
and asked that anyone with
information contact Central
Detectives at 215-686-3093 or
215-686-3094. The man originally arrested
for the crime, Antoine Guyton,
was found not competent to
stand for trial. l
Security footage from the night of the incident at Congregation Beth Solomon
Screenshot via Philadelphia Police Department
14 FEBRUARY 21, 2019
The suspect in the Israeli flag
vandalism case
JEWISH EXPONENT
Screenshot szighelboim@jewishexponent.com;
215-832-0729 JEWISHEXPONENT.COM