On Thursday morning, Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy overturned Drori's 2006 acquittal of a rabbinical student, and convicted the student of "injuring and abandoning." The student’s brother said in response, “Everyone knows that the target here is not my brother, but the original judge, Moshe Drori, in order to make sure he does not become a Supreme Court candidate.”
The accused, Itamar Biton, son of Hadera’s Chief Rabbi, is studying to become a rabbinical court judge, and the conviction may render this impossible. The conviction does not outright ban him from becoming a judge, but a special committee will have to determine whether he is eligible. Itamar's brother says it is no longer certain that Itamar, "after all he has gone through, will want to continue the several years of study that are required to become a religious judge."
The story began in early 2006 when Biton – whose toddler son had died just a few months earlier – attempted to leave a Jerusalem mall parking lot. He arrived at the cashier with his car, and found that he had no money with which to pay for his purchases. He said he would quickly drive home and return with the money, but the cashier – a young female immigrant from Ethiopia – refused. A 20-minute argument ensued, in which the driver offered to leave his ID card to guarantee his return, but still the cashier would not agree. A female colleague of the cashier even stuck her hand in the car and slapped Biton's face, knocking off his glasses. Finally, he started driving slowly – even though the attendant blocked his way. She was carried on his hood for a short distance, until she fell off and was hurt. The driver did not stop or turn around.
Charged later with a type of hit-and-run crime, District Court judge Moshe Drori succeeded in arranging a “forgive and forget” meeting between the two – based on a recommendation from the probation service that stated, “We see that this is a young man (age 24) for whom this is his first and lone violation, and which does not characterize his way of life. Therefore, and also in order not to harm the process of his training to become a rabbinical judge, we recommend not convicting him, but to assign him 140 hours of service on behalf of the public.”
With tears in both their eyes, Biton asked the cashier for forgiveness, and the injured attendant said she forgave. Biton paid a fine of 10,000 shekels, was held under house arrest for a year, and performed 180 hours of public service.
The case would have been forgotten, had not Drori’s name come up for consideration for nomination to the Supreme Court. There were many who did not want the yarmulke-sporting Drori, who always headed his written opinions with the Hebrew acronym for ‘With G-d’s Help,’ on the nation’s highest court, and the 3.5-year-old case suddenly received national attention.
Drori’s opponents succeeded, and his name was withdrawn from consideration – but amidst the media criticism of his ruling on the Biton case, the Supreme Court was considering the Prosecution's appeal of Drori's verdict. With public attention once more focused on the case, the cashier returned from oblivion and announced that she no longer forgave Biton – and after the Supreme Court completed the process by overturning Drori’s ruling and issuing a conviction, she stated with satisfaction, "The main thing is that he should not be a rabbinical judge."
No jail sentence was handed down, but Biton’s driver's license will be suspended for two years.