Chelsea — A rabbi from New York City pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a charge that he tried to elude a Vermont State Police trooper during a traffic stop this summer on Interstate 91 in Fairlee, an incident that was captured on video and raised questions about how the officer handled the situation.
The not guilty plea from 57-year-old Berl Fink, of Brooklyn, N.Y., came only after his attorney, Robert Appel, made a push to have the case thrown out.
“We don’t think there is probable cause to require Rabbi Fink to enter a plea,” Appel said in Orange Superior Court. “There was no attempt to elude.”
However, Assistant Orange County State’s Attorney Dickson Corbett said he feels the state has a case against Fink, who police said was clocked traveling 83 mph in a 65 mph zone around midnight on Aug. 8 on Interstate 91 in Thetford.
Fink proceeded to drive more than 4 miles before pulling over in Fairlee for the state trooper who was following him.
Fink said he didn’t realize that Trooper Justin Thompson was pursuing him, but once he became aware, he looked for a safe place to pull over. Fink traveled at about 60 mph from the time the trooper initiated the traffic stop until he eventually stopped, Appel said.
After a brief break, Acting Judge Charlie Buttrey sided with the state and proceeded with Wednesday’s arraignment.
Vermont law states “no operator of a motor vehicle shall fail to bring his or her vehicle to a stop when signaled to do so by an enforcement officer.”
“Based solely on the trooper’s affidavit, I think there is probable cause to believe a crime was committed,” Buttrey said.
Fink was released from court on his own personal recognizance bail. He and his family flew to Vermont to attend Wednesday’s hearing.
According to an affidavit written by Thompson, the interaction first began around 12:10 a.m., when Thompson clocked Fink driving at 83 mph in Thetford. Thompson pulled into the breakdown lane to let Fink pass before he activated his blue and white emergency lights and began pursued Fink.
When Fink didn’t immediately stop, Thompson wrote in the affidavit, he turned on his siren.
Thompson alleged Fink continued along the interstate for 4 more miles, swerving at times, before finally pulling over in Fairlee.
Fink, his wife, and his two children were instructed out of the car, and Fink was ordered at gunpoint to lie on the ground, where he was handcuffed. His wife and two children also were handcuffed. He eventually was released with a citation to appear in court.
State police and the state Department of Public Safety reviewed the cruiser camera video of the traffic stop and said there was “no evidence” to suggest that Thompson had acted out of “any type of bias or profiling.”
Court papers indicate Fink rejected an offer of diversion, as well as a $300 fine, to resolve the matter. Fink would have had to admit some wrongdoing, something his attorney said he wasn’t willing to do.
“The rabbi feels strongly that he did nothing wrong, that once he understood that the officer was actually trying to signal him to stop, he in fact stopped,” Appel said.
If convicted, Fink faces up to a year in prison and/or a fine of no more than $1,000.
Appel, the former defender general who also was director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, and New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, spoke extensively about their thoughts on the case after the hearing. Fink and his family declined to comment.
Appel and Hikind are focused on having the case dismissed. Appel plans to file a motion to dismiss the case “in the interest of justice.”
“We don’t feel that criminal charges are warranted under the circumstances of this case, and, in fact, we believe Vermont State Police and the state of Vermont owe Rabbi Fink and his family an apology for the way they were treated,” Appel said. “To me, eluding means you are trying to get away. If you are driving down the interstate at midnight at 60 mph with your turn signal on looking for a place to stop, I don’t see that as eluding or even an attempt to elude.”
Appel called the trooper’s actions that day “overly aggressive” and “problematic.”
“Ordering the operator out (of the car) while telling him to keep his hands out the window simultaneously is problematic,” Appel said. “Police under stress tend to tell suspects to do contradictory things at once.”
Appel said he is fully aware that police are often on high alert during late night road-side stops.
“I understand the sensitivity, but the insensitivity in which he treated these kind, peaceful people in my view, was totally uncalled for,” he said. “I’m confounded by the overreaction and the overreach of the trooper on the night in question. In the rabbi’s defense, it was raining pretty hard that night, visibility wasn’t great. He wasn’t familiar with the roads.”
Hikind spoke highly of Fink, who has no prior criminal record. He too contends the rabbi didn’t know the trooper wanted to him pull over, and said once he realized he did, Fink looked for a safe place to stop.
“Eluding means you are trying to get away. Was the rabbi trying to get away? Did he just rob a bank? Did he have drugs in the car?” Hikind said. “By the way, he doesn’t get a speeding ticket. The original motive of the whole darn thing is that he is supposedly speeding.”
Even if Fink didn’t stop in an amount of time that the trooper felt was reasonable, Hikind said, there should have been a time when the officer took a step back.
“Isn’t there a point in this whole story where the state trooper realizes these are not people who are trying to elude or break the law?” Hikind asked. “These are good people. At some point you say, ‘Oh, OK, fine.’ ”
In addition to that, Hikind said, there are civil rights violations at play in this case.
The Fink family has had initial contact with the legal department at the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont and those discussions are ongoing, Appel said.
“Is it procedure to handcuff the other person in the car? Is that what they do in Vermont?” Hikind said. “I don’t know, maybe it is.”
Asked whether he thought the rabbi’s dress and appearance had anything to do with the nature of the traffic stop, Hikind said he didn’t know.
Hikind has been an elected official in New York for 35 years and called himself a “great supporter of police.” Since the traffic stop, he said, he has received hundreds of postcards and emails from Vermonters apologizing for what happened.
The Finks already have been through enough, he said.
“This is what Vermont is spending its tax dollars on?” he said. “To pursue Rabbi Fink ... does that make sense?”
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.
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Posted at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Updated at midnight on Thursday.