NEW YORK - A New York City lawyer whose father is a scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been accused of stealing the identities of academics to discredit his father's rivals.

Prosecutor Elise Roecker said Thursday in a Manhattan court that an indictment has been filed against 49-year-old Raphael Golb.

He is the son of Dr. Norman Golb of the University of Chicago. Prosecutors say the defendant used Internet aliases to falsely accuse Dr. Lawrence Schiffman of New York University of plagiarizing his father's work.

Defence lawyer Martin Garbus says that the issue is free speech and that no crime was committed.

The 2,000-year-old scrolls were found in the late 1940s in Israel.