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, will spend the next six months behind bars.
His sentencing, which happened before Judge Emily Hagan on Monday afternoon, comes one month after Weiss pleaded guilty to a pair of charges in the case. Those charges include attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and possessing criminal tools.
Judge Hagan issued a six-month sentence on both of those charges, which she said will run concurrent. Weiss will also be classified as a tier II sex offender.
Before sentencing was handed down, Weiss offered a statement to the court.
“I am greatly ashamed and filled with deep remorse for what I have done," he said. "It goes against everything I stand for and the very fiber of my being. Through my actions, I have betrayed my own values, betrayed my family, my friends and community and I inflicted extraordinary hurt and pain. I have dedicated my entire life to protecting children, and so it isn’t comprehensible to me that I could’ve done such a thing. I have shattered my entire world, everyone I love and everything I have worked for. For all this, I am most deeply sorry and pained to the very core of my being. I do not know if anything I do can ever make up for the harm that I have caused, but I will dedicate the rest of my life to seeking to heal that which I have broken. I pray from the bottom of my heart for forgiveness. I have spent long hours working with my psychiatrist and medical experts to learn what led to this behavior. With their help, I know now what I did not know before: The very destructive effects of these prescription medications on my injured brain, and I will never, ever under any circumstances take any such prescription medications again. I will continue to work with medical experts and my psychiatrists to better understand the nature of my traumatic brain injury, and remain in therapy working to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. I take full responsibility for my actions. … I accept the consequences of my actions in the form of whatever punishment I will face. I only pray that my family, friends and community will, over time, give me the opportunity to earn their forgiveness and trust, and to demonstrate I am still the same person of character that they knew. To earn back their respect and their love.”
You can watch the full sentencing hearing in the video below. Editor's note: Video contains graphic language:
His daughter also spoke before the judge gave her sentence.
“We know our father to be a good person with a good heart and the courage to do what is right," she said. "He has always been a loving father and grandfather. These last months have also shown us his struggles. While we are angry and we are hurt, we also know that this not the totality of who he is as a person. He needs help. We know that because we know all of the other good and giving things that he’s contributed to our family and to our community. Our parents taught us that people are not the worse days of their lives, and there’s room for atonement, grace and repair.”
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.
Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in a previous story on April 20, 2022.
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."