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Road Rage Rabbi Pleads Guilty to Impersonating Officer on NY Roadways

The White Plains, New York rabbi who impersonated a police officer in road rage incidents throughout Westchester County last year pleaded guilty in Mamaroneck on Thursday, February 27, to the last of four guilty pleas in the ongoing cases.

According to the Journal News, Alfredo Borodowski, 49, who is a rabbi at Congregation Sulam Yaakov in Larchmont, avoided a criminal conviction by pleading guilty to the reduced charge of second-degree harassment, which is a violation. Rabbi Borodowski averted both jail time and probation but he needs to stay out of trouble for a year. The Journal News reported that he pleaded guilty under the same conditions in Greenburgh, White Plains and Yonkers.

As he left Village Court, Borodowski, who reportedly has bipolar disorder, told the Journal News that he wants to be a “voice” for those with mental illness. “I deeply regret any pain that I caused to the other drivers and I ask that they find in their heart the will to forgive me,” he said.

His plea on Thursday in Village Court was in relation with a June 19  incident on Mamaroneck Avenue when Borodowski confronted a 24-year-old woman for allegedly driving too slow in a school zone. The woman told that Borodowski flashed a badge and claimed to be a cop during the incident.

But Borodowski had countered this claim, telling a Mamaroneck police officer at the time of the incident that he had not claimed to be a police officer, but that he had advised her that he was going to call police. According to the Journal News, Borodowski did admit to holding up a badge as he yelled at the 24-year-iold driver.

Following his arrest, Borodowski spent several weeks in treatment and his behavior was subsequently blamed on his psychiatric condition, the Journal News reported. In addition, the rabbi was fired as the executive director of the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning in Manhattan.

The Journal News explained that as a result of ongoing media coverage of the arrest  other motorists came forward, leading to the additional charges in other municipalities. A 30-year-old Mount Vernon woman claimed that Borodowski chased her on the Sprain Brook Parkway in May before banging on her car window once she had stopped at a traffic light. Another confrontation on Interstate 87 in Yonkers last April was even captured on video by a passenger’s cellphone, the Journal News reported. The 26-year-old driver from Scarsdale said Borodowski chased him for swerving in front of his car and then flashed his tiny badge and demanded that he pull over.

Borodowski was charged by White Plains police after a 57-year-old man accused the rabbi of tailgating him in mid-May, waving a badge and forcing him to the side of the road. The driver in that incident, Peter Moses, said this month that he was satisfied with the disposition of the case as long as Borodowski acknowledged what he did was wrong and continued getting help, according to the Journal News.

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