Kidnapping, assault and robbery charges against Cedarhurst brothers Daniel, Jacob, Dov Avital dropped, court document shows

Three Cedarhurst jewelers — all brothers — charged with 12 counts of kidnapping, assault and robbery saw their case dropped earlier this month after a grand jury refused to indict them, court records show.

Jacob Avital, 41, the oldest brother, who ran 5 Towns Jewelry Buyers on Willow Avenue, vowed on Monday that the criminal case may be over, but a civil case is soon to come.

He and his siblings, Daniel, 32, and Dov, 36, have all filed notifications with Nassau County’s legal department that they intend to sue for defamation.

Jacob Avital said that it all could have been avoided before their Sept. 11, 2024, arrest.

He said that he and his brothers were working from home and allowed a customer to come by around 1 p.m. to sell a piece of jewelry — a diamond-studded Cartier bracelet — valued, the man said in his police affidavit, at $8,000.

The man told police that the brothers accused him of trying to pass off a fake and then dragged him into their home and down to their basement, where they beat him with their fists and baseball bats, according to police records. He said that they threatened to beat him with a sledgehammer as well.

After they confiscated the bracelet and the man’s phone and his driver’s license, he said they threatened him, then allowed him to leave, records show.

"They stated to me that they have my information and they will harm my girlfriend and my child," the man said, records show. He called the police.

Jacob Avital said that he did accuse the man of trying to pass off a fake, but none of the rest of the story was true.

He provided Newsday with video and documentary records that contradict the man’s story, evidence that he said the Nassau County police should have looked at before cuffing him and his brothers and then putting out a news release.

Jacob Avital said the purported Cartier was a "super clone" — a near identical replica of the designer jewelry. An experienced jeweler who ran a YouTube channel instructing buyers how to get their money’s worth, Avital said that he only recognized that the piece was fake because he had been scammed before. The man’s certification came from Hawaii, just like a previous fake piece he had fallen for, he said.

He said that 17 police officers came into their home and arrested them, but didn’t investigate. Police didn’t look at home surveillance cameras or search the house for baseball bats or a sledgehammer, he said.

"They had full access to my home, and they walked around my home," he told Newsday. "They didn't even attempt to check the cameras or go for the weapons, because they knew it was nonsense. They took zero evidence. The only evidence they took was the jewelry and they gave it back to the guy two days later."

The brothers said prosecutors ignored their discoveries and pressed them to plead down to lesser charges.

"Dismissing the charges quickly would’ve publicly embarrassed them," Jacob Avital said. "Instead, they chose to continue this farce — subjecting my family to seven months of constant threats and negotiations, repeatedly threatening felony indictment unless we quietly accepted minor noncriminal violations."

The family has been further outraged by the note the alleged victim sent the brothers, threatening to burn down their home, he said, adding he turned it over to prosecutors, but no one has been arrested.

The brothers’ defense lawyer, David Scott Smith, commended the grand jury for declining to indict.

"It is truly unfortunate that the Avitals had to endure the trauma of arrest and watch their reputations and business dragged through the mud by a prosecution doomed from the outset," Smith told Newsday. "This dismissal allows them to clear their names and reclaim their reputations they have carefully built over 50 years."

The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office said the law prohibited it from commenting on the case.

The Nassau County spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.