What to KnowA New Jersey man has been sentenced to 6 months in jail for breaking right into a Rutgers College Islamic middle on the Muslim vacation of Eid-al-Fitr and vandalizing it.Jacob Beacher, of North Plainfield, will even need to serve a yr of supervised launch as soon as he will get out beneath the phrases of the sentence he acquired Tuesday. He pleaded responsible in October to the federal hate crime of damaging non secular property.Beacher initially was charged in April 2024 with single counts of intentional or tried obstruction of spiritual apply and making false statements to federal authorities. The fees stemmed from a break-in on the Middle for Islamic Life at Rutgers College in New Brunswick.
A New Jersey man has been sentenced to 6 months in jail for breaking right into a Rutgers College Islamic middle on the Muslim vacation of Eid-al-Fitr and vandalizing it.
Jacob Beacher, of North Plainfield, will even need to serve a yr of supervised launch as soon as he will get out beneath the phrases of the sentence he acquired Tuesday. He pleaded responsible in October to the federal hate crime of damaging non secular property.
Beacher initially was charged in April 2024 with single counts of intentional or tried obstruction of spiritual apply and making false statements to federal authorities. The fees stemmed from a break-in on the Middle for Islamic Life at Rutgers College in New Brunswick.
Prosecutors have stated Beacher broken property on the web site, together with a number of non secular artifacts and quite a few different gadgets that contained holy language from the Quran, Islam’s sacred scripture. Authorities stated Beacher additionally stole a Palestinian flag and a charity field belonging to the middle.
Beacher just isn’t affiliated with Rutgers, officers have stated.
The location was unoccupied when the break-in occurred round 2:40 a.m., prosecutors stated. The general harm was estimated at $40,000.
Whereas talking with the FBI two days after the break-in, Beacher stated he was the particular person seen close to the middle in surveillance video, however he denied breaking into the positioning. The incident got here a couple of weeks after the state lawyer common’s workplace had reported a latest spike in bias incidents in New Jersey.
