United States v. Weingarten, No. 09-1043-cr (2d Cir. January 18, 2011) (Cabranes, Wesley, Livingston, CJJ)
Defendant Weingarten, who sexually abused one of his daughters for years, successfully challenged the applicability of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b), which makes it a crime to travel in “foreign commerce” with the intent to engage in sexual activity that would be illegal in the United States, to one of the counts of conviction.
Background
Weingarten, a United States citizen, moved his family to Antwerp, Belgium, in 1984. Starting in about 1991, he began sexually abusing his oldest daughter, who was then nine or ten. The abuse went on for years – the daughter moved for England for a time – but when she returned to Belgium it resumed. In 1997, Weingarten moved the family to Israel, but the abuse continued. He also brought her to Brooklyn, to visit his father, and abused her there, too.…