Regretful – but still adamant she did it out of love – the woman who kidnapped a wheelchair-bound Orthodox Jewish boy with cerebral palsy was sentenced to 57 months in prison.
Theresa Goldberg told Brooklyn federal Judge I. Leo Glasser she was sorry.
“I regret what I did for many reasons,” Goldberg said. “It wasn’t my intention to harm him. I only had positive thoughts for him. I pray for him. I have for many years and his family, too.”
Last October, Goldberg – a longtime nanny for little Chaim Weill – took the then-6-year-old boy for a walk and never returned. Police found the pair two days later in a hotel parking lot in a suburb of Richmond, Va.
Her lawyer, Jerome Karp, argued that the 40-year-old woman has a mental condition and should continue the therapy she’s been receiving since her arrest.
“This woman does not belong in jail,” Karp pleaded with the judge. “This is a woman whom jail will do nothing for … This woman is a sick woman, and she has been for most of her life.”
But Glasser condemned the crime.
“Mrs. Goldberg, you did a very bad thing,” Glasser said. “There’s no justification at all.”
Goldberg opted to go directly to jail and was escorted out after saying goodbye to her husband, David, 47, and a close friend.
David Goldberg was also sentenced, to 10 months in prison, for his part in the kidnapping.
During the missing-person’s investigation, David Goldberg was questioned and was unhelpful – even though officials believe he knew all along that his wife had planned on taking the child.
The husband read a statement pleading for mercy and apologizing for his part in the kidnapping.
“Words cannot adequately express the heart of regret and pain and sorrow I feel for my ignorance and inaction,” he said. “I pray for forgiveness, from Chaim, his family, the entire community and from this high court.”
Lea Weill, Chaim’s mother, spoke to the judge before sentencing, and argued that what the couple had done was horrible and greatly affected her family and her little boy, who is still recovering from the ordeal.
Chaim’s parents, who are Hasidic, say his sidelocks had been cut off and his yarmulke thrown away so he wouldn’t be recognized. Hasidic Jews believe in a biblical prohibition against cutting males’ side curls.