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Scarsdale Man Is Third Person To Accuse Rabbi Of Impersonating Cops

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- A third victim has come forward with a claim that a Westchester County rabbi impersonated a police officer during a traffic dispute.

The 26-year-old Scarsdale man told The Journal News that Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski, the Rabbi of Congregation Sulam Yaakov in Larchmont,  pulled a badge on him and a friend after an incident on I-87 near the Bronx-Yonkers border.

The man claims that Borodowski pulled the badge and demanded that he pull over after he swerved into the Rabbi's lane.

"Maybe I cut him off a little bit, but nothing to be alarmed about," the man told The Journal News.

The man said that he could tell the alleged impersonator was not a cop and that a shouting match ensued after Borodowski allegedly followed him off an exit ramp at Central Park Avenue in Yonkers, The Journal News reported. He said that a passenger recorded the incident and turned the video over to authorities.

Borodowski has been accused of this type of behavior in the past.

Earlier this month a woman accused Borodowski of exploding in a road rage incident on Mamaroneck Avenue.

"The man was acting extremely aggressively and started shouting out his car window at her," her attorney Richard Clifford said.

The woman said she was driving 20 mph -- the posted speed limit in the school zone. The rabbi allegedly got mad at her slow speed and then is accused of flashing a fake police badge.

"Driver pulled alongside her, had his window down, identified himself as a police officer, was shouting at her 'pull over!'" Clifford said. "She pulled over, wouldn't get out of her car and called police. Police responded immediately."

That's when they arrested the rabbi and charged him with criminal impersonation -- a felony.

Earlier this week a second victim came forward with accusations that Borodowski was impersonating a police officer during a road rage incident.

A CBS 2 viewer who saw the original report about Borodowski said that he recognized him from a similar run-in.

"When we saw that face, we knew that the person who had accosted us -- and left my wife completely unnerved and afraid -- was the same person who was in the report on Channel 2," Peter Moses said.

He said it began on the Scarsdale bypass, with an impatient driver first tailgating, then honking his horn and passing his car, and finally waiting farther up the road to block Moses' way.

Moses said the man was shaking with rage, and identified himself as a police officer.

"He had a small badge that did not have the name of a police department on it, so I knew he wasn't really cop at that point, but I didn't want to escalate the problem," Moses said. "But he did threaten to arrest me. I told him 'Fine, let's call the police,' at which point he left."

An attorney for the first driver to come forward with allegations against Borodowski called the video an important revelation.

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