Texas rabbi says woman was gift to him from God, sexually assaults her: police

A north Texas rabbi used a woman’s emotional dependency on him as her clergyman to sexually assault her, according to police.

Rabbi Mark Aaron Griffin, 47, sexually assaulted a woman inside his synagogue, police said.

According to court documents, Griffin sexually assaulted a woman in March 2020 by “exploiting (her) emotional dependency on (Griffin) as a clergyman in the clergyman’s professional character as a spiritual advisor.”

Griffin used his influence as a clergyman to coerce the victim to have both consensual and non-consensual sex, according to authorities.

NBC DFW reported Griffin told the woman he wanted her to be a “concubine,” or mistress. He claimed she was a gift to him from God and to back up that claim, he told her that biblical figures Abraham and Jacob were examples of people having multiple soulmates, police said.

Police searched Griffin’s synagogue on Sept. 10, 2020. They used a forensic light and found what appeared to be bodily fluids on the carpet in the welcome room and Rabbi’s office, which is where the victim said she was assaulted, according to police.

Investigators cut out pieces of the carpet and sent it to the lab for testing, police said. It tested positive for bodily fluids. 

Griffin was indicted on four counts of sexual assault in December 2020, police said.

On the synagogue’s webpage, it states that Griffin is a chaplain for the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department.

However, the sheriff’s office said Griffin was last in the jail as a volunteer chaplain in March 2020 and they removed him from the chaplain’s list in September after his arrest and he is no longer associated with the sheriff’s office, authorities said.