By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — An alleged cyber-bully who admitted he lied to authorities about using 70 Internet aliases to discredit his father's academic rivals told prosecutors Tuesday he only lied because he was afraid of getting sued — not because he thought he'd committed a crime.
Golb, 50, is charged with identity theft for creating dozens of e-mail accounts to smear academics who disagreed with his father, Jewish scriptures researcher Dr. Norman Golb, on the origins of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls. He also allegedly wrote blog posts using aliases accusing one of the scholars, NYU professor Lawrence Schiffman, of plagiarising his father's work.
In a 2009 video statement seen by jurors at his trial, Golb insisted to authorities that he was not the author of the online articles, claiming Schiffman was a plagiarist.
Golb admitted several times in testimony Tuesday that he had lied during the taped interview, claiming that he did so because he had been afraid Schiffman would sue him, not because he believed his actions would be considered criminal.
"So when you lied during the video statement...it's just because you know what you did was wrong?" Assistant District Attorney John Bandler asked. "You didn't just lie because you were tired?"
"Not just because I was tired, because I was afraid," Golb replied.
Golb testified that the idea that criminal charges would be brought against him had been "preposterous or implausible."
"I thought it must have been a hoax or a mistake," he said.
He also said that by agreeing to the interview and lying about what had happened he believed he'd be released from custody sooner.
Golb's lawyer, David Breitbart, said during summations in the three-week trial that his client's actions did not rise to the level of criminal, saying Golb was merely exercising freedoms of speech and trying to protect his father's Dead Sea Scrolls theory, which he believed had been ripped off by Schiffman.
The trial is expected to continue on Thursday. Golb faces up to four years in prison if convicted of identity theft, the top charge.
