Former Charlotte congregation president pleads guilty to child pornography charge
The former president of Temple Beth El was sentenced to two years of probation Monday after pleading guilty to a child pornography charge.
Evan Roy Wilkoff, 56, who served as president of the Charlotte congregation for two years until June 2020, will be also required to register as a sex offender for 30 years.
Wilkoff was arrested on six felony charges in March 2021, as part of an investigation by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s cyber-crimes unit. The charges alleged that he possessed and distributed video showing girls as young as seven engaged in sex acts. But in a plea deal with prosecutors, the five most serious charges were dismissed.
Soon after his arrest, Wilkoff resigned his position on the temple’s governing board, according to the congregation’s senior rabbi, Asher Knight.
“I can’t rewrite history. But I give my word that I will never repeat it,” Wilkoff told Superior Court Judge Donald Cureton, reading from a typewritten statement that shook slightly in his hand.
“I’m so sorry to you all,” he added.
Wilkoff had no prior criminal record, and there’s no evidence that he abused children, Cureton said. Still, the judge said, “the defendant may represent a danger to children.”
As a registered sex offender, Wilkoff will be prohibited from having contact with children — with one exception. If he has grandchildren in the future, he will be allowed to spend time with them, as long as adults are present and parents consent, the judge ruled.
At the sentencing, Wilkoff’s attorney, Brian Cromwell, asked the judge if he would also let his client have contact with children in his extended family, including nephews and nieces.
“He can’t spend Thanksgiving with his family because of this,” Cromwell told the judge.
But the prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Boswell, objected to that request. That was not part of the plea agreement, Boswell said, and “the court has already been very generous in allowing him to have contact with his grandchildren.”
The judge sided with the prosecutor.
Temple Beth El, a Reform Jewish congregation on Providence Road, is the Carolinas’ largest synagogue, with more than 850 families as members.
Rabbi Knight said last week that temple leaders have not heard any allegations that Wilkoff engaged in inappropriate behavior at the synagogue. Wilkoff focused on the synagogue’s governance and budget while serving in his volunteer role as president , and he was not involved in programming or children’s activities, temple leaders said.
Wilkoff has worked for years as manager of Hembstead Capital, LLC, a consulting and real estate investment firm, according to Secretary of State records.
This story was originally published February 6, 2023 at 11:45 AM.
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