NEW HAVEN, Conn. – A judge on Tuesday entered not guilty pleas on behalf of a rabbi accused of repeatedly raping and molesting a teenage boy who attended a school the rabbi founded and who was awarded $15 million in a civil lawsuit on those allegations.
Rabbi Daniel Greer is accused of sexually assaulting the boy when he attended the Yeshiva of New Haven school from 2001 to 2005. Greer, who's 77 years old, was a founder and principal of the school.
Greer appeared on Tuesday in New Haven Superior Court, where Judge Patrick Clifford entered the not guilty pleas to felony charges of sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor and continued the case to Oct. 11.
Greer, who remains free on $100,000 bail he posted, declined to comment after the hearing. His lawyer, William Dow III, said they will try the case in court, not in the media.
A federal jury in May awarded $15 million in damages to the former student, who lives in New Jersey, in a civil lawsuit against Greer and the school.
The former student, Eliyahu Mirlis, who's now 29 years old, alleged in the lawsuit that Greer sexually assaulted him on school property, in the bedroom of Greer's home and at motels in Branford and in Philadelphia and Paoli, Pennsylvania, among other places.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they've been sexually assaulted, but Mirlis wanted to come forward, said his lawyer, Antonio Ponvert.
The lawsuit also alleged Greer sexually abused at least one other boy at the school.
Greer has filed a motion for a new trial in the civil case, challenging the evidence, the verdict and the award.
Greer is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School. He has testified before the state legislature on a variety of issues, including opposing same-sex unions in 2002 before the state approved same-sex marriage.
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