Hempstead, NY - An elderly Long Island dentist said he was attacked by the businessman who’s a key figure in the Israeli corruption investigation after his patient “snapped” over an argument about his tooth tab.
“The subject of money came up. I wasn’t paid for my part,” Dr. Leonard Barashick said about Morris Talansky, the star witness against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. “One thing led to another and he just snapped, as homicidal maniacs do.”
Talansky, 75, was a no-show in Hempstead court on charges he assaulted Barashick. The judge told Talansky’s lawyer that if his client did not show up for his pending trial, he would issue an arrest warrant.
Talansky has recently testified in Israel that he gave at least $150,000 in cash to Olmert, but insisted they were not bribes.
Barashick, 84, said he worked on Talansky’s teeth for decades. He claims the relationship soured on July 5 after Talansky refused to pay for dental work and “threatened to kill me” in phone messages.
The dentist said Talansky was at one time a kind and gentle family man who helped sick people. But once he got involved with Israeli politicians and big shots, he allegedly became arrogant.
“I would call him a philanderer, a liar,” as well as a thief, said Barashick, who also claims Talansky cheated him out of $200,000 “in an insurance scheme.” He was never charged with any such scheme.
“He shoved a steel chair into me so hard it almost cost me amputation of both lower legs,” Barashick said. “I saw him pick up his fist that was as big as a kosher ham. He had me up against the wall.”
Four men in his dentist’s office in Baldwin managed to stop the attack, Barashick said.
After Talansky was arrested, the charges were reduced from felony assault to third-degree assault, a misdemeanor - because the four witnesses declined to back up Barashick’s story.
Nassau County First District Court Judge William O’Brien asked Talansky’s criminal lawyer, Anthony Collelouri, why his client did not show up for a court appearance.
Collelouri said that his client had flown back to Israel for a family wedding but was also aiding prosecutors in the Olmert case.
“How did I not hear about this . . . this intrigue?” O’Brien asked Collelouri.
After court Collelouri said that Barashick was making it all up. “He’s a very nice man who is anything but violent. He’s grandfatherly.”

More...