CLEVELAND — 61-year-old Stephen Weiss, who was arrested last April amid allegations he arranged to have sex with somebody he thought was a teen boy, has now pleaded guilty in the case.
Weiss was back in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Thursday morning where he submitted guilty pleas to one count of attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and one count of possessing criminal tools.
Sentencing has been set for Monday, Feb. 27 at 12 p.m. before Judge Emily Hagan. As part of his plea, court records show he will also be classified as a tier II sex offender.
Upon announcing his arrest last year, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office said Weiss "engaged in sexually explicit online conversations with an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a 15-year-old boy on a social networking app. Following the conversations, he traveled to a pre-arranged location in Cuyahoga County to engage in sexual activity with the purported child."
He was arrested at the scene.
Weiss was a rabbi of B'nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike for more than 20 years, which released the following statement about the situation last year: "B’nai Jeshurun Congregation’s leadership was shocked to learn of the April 18 arrest of Senior Rabbi Stephen Weiss," said Rebekah Dorman, President of the Congregation’s Board of Trustees. “We acted quickly to suspend Rabbi Weiss immediately as Senior Rabbi. He has been ordered to cease engaging in any congregational duties and been barred from the premises. We will have no other comment on this situation at this time."
Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in a previous story on April 20, 2022.