It wasn't until several weeks ago that the father of Leiby Kletzky, the 8-year-old Brooklyn boy whom police say was brutally murdered by Levi Aron, learned the horrific details of his son's death. Aron reportedly confessed to killing Leiby in July after finding the lost boy wandering the streets of Borough Park. In addition to the criminal charges he now faces, Leiby's devastated father Nachman Kletzky has filed a lawsuit against Aron. The civil lawsuit describes the murder as “one of the most horrific crimes in the history of the County of Kings,” and seeks $100 million in punitive damages from the mentally unstable hardware store clerk.
In the wrongful-death lawsuit, Kletzky claims his son was walking home from summer camp and was “without justification or excuse, abducted, held hostage against his will” at Aron’s home before being “terrorized, physically and psychologically assaulted,” according to court papers obtained by the Wall Street Journal. "The defendant’s culpable acts ... were utterly reckless, malicious, wanton, willful and exhibited a depraved indifference to the health, safety, freedom and rights... of Leiby Kletzky." Kletzky's lawyer says the family is seeking compensation for the potential loss of income that Leiby would have earned had he reached working age. A person familiar with Aron’s finances tells the Journal he has no money.
In a separate lawsuit, Kletzky is suing Aron's father Jack Aron, who owns the Kensington home where the boy was held hostage, smothered to death, poisoned and finally dismembered. The elder Aron is accused of "causing, allowing and permitting tools of terror to be and remain at said premises, knowing of the vicious, assaultive and murderous propensities of his son, Levi Aron," the court document says. Kletzy's lawyer Mark Goldsmith tells the Daily News, "We find it hard to believe he was unaware the boy was in the house all that time when he failed to protect him."
Aron is being held under special guard on Riker’s Island; his pro bono lawyers are expected to plead insanity, but a team of psychiatrists recently deemed him fit for trial.
