Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 4

Dad Presses Probe Into Son's Slaying Files suit against school offers reward Chaim Weiss three months before murder several times Police also gave polygraph tests to many of the boys and rabbis at the yeshiva Police said at the time that their investigation was impeded because the boys were reluctant to talk about the case based on a Jewish belief that prohibits saying something without proof But they said school officials had cooperated The lawsuit filed in 1988 charges the school with negligence and lax security Roncallo's ruling orders the school's two top rabbis Shlomo Lesin and Yitzchok Feigelstock to submit to pretrial questioning by Feld Feld has already interviewed two of the school's other rabbis "There is no reason why they should not be deposed since they would have intimate and relevant knowledge as to the security and operation at the school" Roncallo wrote The judge said the names and addresses requested are "all relevant and should be supplied to the plaintiff" School officials dispute Feld's claims that they have not complied with the judge's order Lesin the yeshiva's executive director said that Chaim 's academic record along with the requested names and addresses were given to Rosenberg Lesin said the pretrial interviews had not yet been scheduled and that both he and Feigelstock are willing to be deposed In yet another effort to gain information the Weiss family last month offered a $100000 reward for information on Chaim's murder Police circulated the notice to youngsters who were at the school at the time of the murder So far there has been no response police said Yesterday Det Sgt Robert Edwards said "We've run down every lead we could run down There's nothing that's new" He said police received no response to the reward offer and he said he did not know whether the answers Weiss seeks in his lawsuit would solve the crime The boy's body was found on the floor with his feet propped on the bed But an autopsy revealed that the body apparently had been lying on the bed for several hours previously indicating it had been moved Weiss wants to know why his son was put in a room by himself who moved the body who opened the window in the room that night and who lit a candle several days after the body was discovered Weiss has said that he thinks the open window is significant because it is a custom of Orthodox Jews to open a window in a room where a body is found to let out the spirit In addition several days after the murder when the dormitory was closed police and school officials found the lighted mourning candle on the desk in Chaim's room "I'm looking for answers" Weiss said in a telephone interview yesterday Asked about Weiss' questions Lesin said "I wish we knew the answers" By Shirley Perlman More than three years after Chaim Weiss was found stabbed to death in his bed at a Long Beach school for Orthodox Jews his father is pressing an investigation into the unsolved murder on his own pursuing a civil suit in court and offering a $100000 reward raised by family members Although there are no suspects in the killing and police say they have exhausted all leads the case remains very much alive for the father Anton Weiss a Manhattan businessman For the past two years he has been embroiled in a $15-million wrongful death suit against the school that he hopes will shed light on the crime He also has interviewed school rabbis and obtained extensive lists and records of students at Torah High School of Long Beach "Maybe I should give up?" Weiss wondered aloud in a recent interview "I can't give up" The latest development in the case stems from an order issued last month by State Supreme Court Justice Angelo Roncallo in Mineo-la requiring that school officials turn over Chaim 's academic records the names and addresses of his classmates youngsters who lived on his dormitory floor the dormitory counselors the head maintenance and security person and "all the students known to the teacher to have had difficulty with the deceased" The order was signed March 1 and the material was to be released by April 5 School officials say they've complied with the order But according to Weiss he still hasn't received the information and yesterday his lawyer David Feld of Manhattan filed a new motion asking Roncallo to find the school in default and impose fines for failure to comply with the court order A response from the school is due May 24 Harvey Rosenberg a Manhattan lawyer representing the school did not return telephone calls yesterday In court papers he has opposed releasing the requested names claiming that the information was irrelevant an "invasion of privacy" and a threat to the school's well-being "If the school were to reveal the names of its students and expose them to this investigative process and the horror of the decedent's tragedy all over again it would do irreparable harm to the school itself" Rosenberg said Chaim 15 was murdered sometime after 1 am on Nov 1 1986 the last time classmates say they saw him alive A dormitory supervisor found the slain llth-grader about 7 am when he went to awaken Chaim for morning prayers Nassau County police have said the youth apparently was asleep when his attacker slipped into the third-floor room where he slept alone and repeatedly stabbed and hacked at him with a heavy knife-like weapon Each of the boy's classmates was questioned Photo by Bill Clare Anton Weiss who wants son's murder solved New Leads in Sex Probe at St John's en male student Newsday has learned The cooperating student was a participant but is not believed to have committed sodomy on the 21 -year-old student as three indicted students are alleged to have done sources said The victim a foreign student told authorities she was forced to perform oral sex by as many as five students at an off-campus house at 75-11 175th St in Jamaica The incident has sparked a large-scale investigation into the actions of several students of St John's Universi By Wendy Lin and Elaine Rivera New York Investigators in the St John's sex assault case have obtained the first names and descriptions of other alleged victims and are now actively seeking them to aid in the expanding inquiry sources said yesterday In a related development a student who has agreed to cooperate with the Queens district attorney's office met yesterday with investigators and prosecutors to give his eyewitness account of the March 1 sexual attack against a fe ty including members of the lacrosse team Authorities say that more than 10 women may have been sexually abused at the house occupied by several lacrosse team members and others Investigators have obtained the first names of other alleged victims who also have been described by their "ethnicity" sources said Two of the alleged victims are believed to be sisters and authorities said it may not be difficult to find some of the victims because they have unusual first names Sources said the male students suspected in the assault would comb local bars to bring women back to the house There others would allegedly take part in a gang attack sources said The participants would call it "hooking up" authorities said So far three students two of them lacrosse team members have been charged in a 28-count indictment with sodomy sexual abuse sexual misconduct and unlawful imprisonment Three more St John's students have been targeted for arrest sources said.