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New Jersey Rabbi Picked Up In Teen Prostitution Bust

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - Two Bronx residents have been arrested in New Jersey in the alleged trafficking a 17-year-old Pennsylvania girl for prostitution, while an East Brunswick, New Jersey, rabbi has been arrested in charged related to the case.

Richard Ortiz, Gabriella Colon, Aryeh Goodman
Richard Ortiz, Gabriella Colon, Aryeh Goodman (credit: Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office)

Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and East Brunswick police Chief James Conroy announced that Gabriella Colon, 18, and Richard Ortiz, 23, of the Bronx have been charged with 11 counts.

The counts against the Bronx residents include human trafficking, conspiracy to commit human trafficking, promoting prostitution of a child, conspiracy to promote prostitution of a child, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal restraint, and several child pornography offenses – including the manufacturing, distribution and possession of child pornography, prosecutors said.

They were arrested at a motel in Fort Lee on Friday, prosecutors said. Both were being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick pending a detention hearing.

Also arrested was East Brunswick rabbi Aryeh Goodman, 35, who is charged with one count of engaging in prostitution with a child and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said.

Goodman has been in trouble before, he was arrested in 2013, for making sexual contact with a boy at a youth camp. He had been giving religious lessons at his home.

Authorities believe the 17-year-old Lancaster girl was a victim of human trafficking. They alleged she had been sold for sexual services to approximately 30 men between Jan. 1 to Feb. 2, 2018, at a hotel in East Brunswick.

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