Sex charges dropped against fired Ramapo cop, businessman
BY STEVE LIEBERMAN • SLIEBERM@LOHUD.COM • OCTOBER 8, 2009

A day after the credibility of their main witness was damaged when she lied during testimony, Rockland prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday against a fired Ramapo police officer who had been accused of sexually abusing a Monsey woman by performing medical exams on her while her millionaire husband watched.
The same charges were dropped against the husband.
Based on Sarah Silber’s lying under oath, the charges against Andrew Dale and her husband, Zalman Silber, were dropped “in the interest of justice,” according to the county District Attorney’s Office.
“We cannot sustain the burden of proof” to show that Dale and Silber were guilty of third-degree aggravated sexual assault and masquerading as doctors, First Assistant District Attorney James Mellion told the judge.
Acting state Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bartlett then ended the 3-day-old nonjury trial in New City.
Dale immediately hugged his lawyer, David Goldstein, as his wife, Karen, cried.
The decision ended a nearly 2-year legal battle for Dale, during which he lost his decade-long job.
“I am looking forward to my first good night’s sleep in two years,” Dale said. “I am looking forward to spending time with my wife and two children and giving them a big hug.”
Dale wanted his job back and filed a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit against the town over his firing in August 2008.
Ramapo Town Attorney Michael Klein said Wednesday that the Town Board’s decision was based on Dale’s violation of department rules and that the board wasn’t reversing its decision.
The judicial hearing officer recommended suspending Dale for a year, but the Town Board fired him based on criminality cited by the hearing officer.
Sarah Silber, whose remarried name is Hollendar, had accused Dale of performing gynecological, rectal and breast exams on her on four occasions in the master bedroom of her Monsey house
She accused Dale of ordering her to change into different outfits and do 25 jumping jack in her under garments after each of the exams.
She claimed her then-husband watched each 45- to 60-minute session and wanted to have sex with her afterward.
Defense finds lies
While defense lawyers called her claims preposterous and argued the case should not have been brought to trial, she gave that account to a grand jury, to detectives and to a judicial officer at Dale’s departmental hearing.
Zalman Silber’s lawyer, former prosecutor William Aronwald, said Wednesday that if the District Attorney’s Office had properly investigated Sarah Silber, prosecutors wouldn’t have based their case on her without corroboration. He said the defense found weaknesses and problems with her credibility after comparing her testimony against signed statements in her medical and insurance records and in her divorce papers.
“If they had investigated her more fully, I don’t think the case would have been brought,” Aronwald said. “They put two people through a nearly 2-year ordeal.”
Under cross-examination by defense lawyer David Goldstein, Sarah Silber admitted lying. He also pointed out discrepancies in her testimony on her claims of being sexually abused, compared with police reports.
The crushing blow for the prosecution came when she testified that she teaches yoga and does body massages, but that she didn’t do massages in New York because she was not licensed.
Goldstein and Dale then played three recordings for Bartlett showing Sarah Silber massaging clients in Monsey and the Bronx.
Mellion and fellow prosecutor Kevin Gilleece were not aware of the videos.
Aronwald said his private investigator, James Dowd, had set up the sting that snared Sarah Silber based on advertisements she took out New York magazines offering massages in people’s homes.
As the recordings played, she maintained that she was not giving massages, even when the video showed her oiling her hands and stroking the man’s legs and arm.
“The prosecution had as its chief witness someone who over and over again testified falsely before the judge,” Goldstein said after court on Wednesday. “And when confronted, she continued lying.
“The D.A. had no choice but to dismiss the case,” he said. “For them to go forward would have turned a prosecution into a persecution.”

I wander what the DA was on to have wasted public money bringing this to trial and who is going to restore the accused reputation.

I know him – the guy spends his day (and night!) charitably working for the ‘community’!

Yet, his character is ’shot to death’!

Yet this is currently just an accusation (guess from whom?)

How convenient that this accusation should happen after so many years….

People should not assume guilt so quickly….