BOSTON, Dec. 14, 2011—A one-time Brighton resident was barred from contact with children today as he was sentenced for sexually abusing three children while he served as a rabbi at a Brookline school more than 35 years ago, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.

STANLEY LEVITT (D.O.B. 4/4/46), who now lives in Philadelphia, pleaded guilty yesterday to all four pending indictments charging him with indecent assault and battery on a child. Those charges reflect sexual misconduct with three of Levitt’s male students during the 1975-1976 calendar year.

“For the first time in any jurisdiction, this defendant has been found unequivocally guilty of his offenses against children,” Conley said. “That’s no small challenge in a case that’s now decades old, with no physical evidence and no witnesses but the victims themselves. Those victims, now grown men, can take some satisfaction in knowing that their courage lies at the heart of these convictions.”

Assistant District Attorney David Deakin recommended that Levitt serve two and a half years behind bars and, upon his release, remain on probation for 10 years.

Deakin recommended that Levitt be ordered to wear a GPS monitoring device during that probationary term; to enter and complete a sex offender treatment program; and to comply with the sex offender registry laws of any state in which he resides. Deakin further recommended that Levitt be ordered to have no contact with any child under 17 without supervision by a guardian; not reside with any child under 17; engage in no employment or volunteer work that would put him in contact with any child under 17; and have no contact with any of the victims.

Judge Geraldine Hines did not impose jail time but did sentence Levitt to the 10-year probationary term with all recommended conditions.

Specifically, Levitt admitted to one incident of improper physical contact with one student recuperating at Children’s Hospital in Boston after an accident at school; two incidents with a different student during a three-night visit to Levitt’s Chiswick Road home; and one incident with a third student, also at Levitt’s home, during about the same time period. The victims came forward separately, with the third victim disclosing the abuse after reading media accounts of Levitt’s indictment for offenses against the previous two victims.

Conley spearheaded efforts to eliminate the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse after repeatedly learning of older cases that could not be prosecuted because – as with all three of the children in the Levitt case – the victims did not disclose their abuse until decades later.

In 2006, those efforts paid off in significant part when the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse was extended from 15 years to 27 years.

It was a different aspect of the law, however, that allowed prosecutors to pursue the charges against Levitt, Conley said. When Levitt left Massachusetts, the clock on the statute of limitations stopped, allowing prosecutors to pursue the charges.

After committing the Boston offenses but before being charged here, Levitt faced similar allegations in Philadelphia. One of those cases was terminated before trial, a second ended in a finding of not guilty, and Levitt pleaded nolo contendere to the third, receiving a probationary term.

Kate Lagana was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate on the case. Levitt was represented by attorney Scott Curtis.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.