Four men accused of damaging a Brooklyn synagogue during a melee that followed the discovery of a secret tunnel at the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights are set to stand trial after turning down a plea deal offered by prosecutors, according to the Associated Press.
The men face felony criminal mischief charges for their alleged role in a brawl last January that damaged parts of the famed complex, at 770 Eastern Pkwy., the news agency reported on Tuesday. At a court conference Monday, six defendants pleaded guilty to lesser charges and agreed to an order of protection that prohibits them from making “alterations, excavations or demolitions to the synagogue” for three years. Six others have previously pleaded guilty to reduced charges, according to the AP.
Four of the defendants — Yaakov Rothchild, Yisroel Binyamin, Yerachmiel Blumenfeld and Menachem Maidanchik — declined the plea deal offered by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. They are scheduled to face trial on April 28 on a felony charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years, the AP said.
Last January, many young men had gathered to protest an attempt by synagogue leaders to seal off a makeshift tunnel that some congregants had dug without permission in an effort to expand the worship space. When police arrived, prosecutors say some of the men ripped wooden siding off the wall, flung prayer books in the air and refused to leave the dusty excavation site.
“This is a blemish on the Chabad movement as far as I’m concerned,” Judge Adam Perlmutter told the men, according to the news agency. “They built buildings all over the world. It involves raising money, hiring architects, getting building permits and any rezoning as necessary. It is the only way that it gets done in this town.”
