Cedarhurst Yeshiva Student Accused Of Scrawling Anti-Semitic Graffiti On LIRR
CEDARHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A teenager from Queens was charged Thursday with scrawling anti-Semitic graffiti on a Long Island Rail Road station in Cedarhurst at least eight different times.
Jonathan Schuster, 18, of Far Rockaway, was charged with eight counts of felony criminal mischief as a hate crime, eight additional counts of misdemeanor criminal mischief, and eight counts of misdemeanor making of graffiti.
Schuster, a senior at the yeshiva Priority 1:Torah Academy of Lawrence-Cedarhurst , allegedly used a black marker to make anti-Semitic statements that included expletives eight different times dating back to December 2012. The graffiti always defaced advertising billboards on the platform level of the Cedarhurst LIRR station, Nassau County police said.
Police say the incidents at the Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Hwelett stations typically occurred overnight and generally consisted of profanity-laced statements written in permanent marker on one or several platform billboards or station signs that are bolted to platform barriers. Vandals also etched a crude swastika into a Lucite wall of the platform shelters at the Five Towns station.
In virtually every instance, the graffiti made direct hateful reference to Orthodox Jews, authorities said.
The graffiti incidents at the Lawrence and Hewlett stations remained under investigation Thursday, according to a published report.
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