Shalom “Sal” Yehudiel, 41, was arrested at JFK Airport last month after authorities said he attempted to flee the country. At the time, he had just had an earlier child molestation charge dismissed by a judge in Hackensack.
In the new indictment, Eudiel is accused of sexually assaulting two girls, ages 14 and 15, in Teaneck between November 2016 and April 2017.
Efdiel, who now lives in Aventura, Florida, turned himself in on Monday, Sept. 18, and was booked into the Bergen County Jail on the new charges, Bergen County Attorney Mark Musella said.
Yehudiel owned and operated The Humble Toast, a kosher restaurant on Queen Anne Road, for several years before adding a second restaurant, La Cucina Di Nava. He was also the first contestant to adhere to a kosher diet on the Food Network series “Chopped” in 2020.
Two lawsuits were subsequently filed in Hackensack Superior Court in early 2021.
In one case, a woman who worked at The Humble Toast accused Youdiel of making lewd comments in his office and forcing her to perform oral sex on him when she was 17 years old.
The second woman said that since she was 14 years old, a man had “repeatedly sexually assaulted, groomed, harassed, intimidated and sexually assaulted her inside the Anshei Lubavitch Sisters building in Fair Lawn and on adjacent property.” “I forced contact with him,” he said.
At the time, Eudiel’s lawyer called the lawsuit “false and frivolous” and characterized it as an act of extortion that is “totally baseless and defamatory in nature” and part of a campaign of “hate, bigotry and discrimination.” I attached it.
Zaaka, an organization formed to combat child sexual abuse in the Orthodox community, staged a protest outside Humbletoast in late November 2021.
Shortly after, the Bergen County Rabbinical Council, which certifies kosher restaurants, banned Eudiel. The city council said he would step away from both restaurants “until this matter is resolved.”
Ehudiel was arrested by prefectural authorities in March 2022 on suspicion of raping a minor employed at one of his restaurants, resulting in a total of three victims.
Eudiel was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a victim between the ages of 13 and 16, among other charges, and sent to the Bergen County Jail.
Eudiel spent a week in a county lockup facility before being placed on home confinement after a judge in Hackensack granted him pretrial release with special conditions.
Six months later, he sold Humble Toast and La Cucina di Nava.
The first criminal indictment concluded this past August 7th in the same Hackensack courthouse where the first criminal indictment began. That same day, Superior Court Judge Christopher Kaslau ruled that the FBI violated Yudiel’s rights by not turning over videos directly related to the case.
See also: Judge dismisses child sex charges against Teaneck’s ‘Chopped’ kosher chef
The judge dismissed the charges without prejudice and allowed prosecutors to reopen the case.
They did it right away.
Efdiel was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at John F. Kennedy Airport and turned over to Port Authority police on August 8. He was briefly detained in New York City until his release.
See also: Fair Lawn Chef Arrested at JFK Airport Days After Sexual Assault Charges Dismissed: Officials
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