Memphis, TN – A Jackson man is facing a federal civil rights charge after authorities said he defaced a Torah and religious prayer books.
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The U.S. attorney’s office for West Tennessee says 25-year-old Justin Shawn Baker has been indicted May 15 with violating the civil rights of students and faculty of the Margolin Hebrew Academy in Memphis.
The indictment says Baker defaced the books, which students and faculty of the academy were using for a worship service conducted at the Doubletree Hotel in Jackson, on Jan. 12.
According to The Jackson Sun, Rabbi Gil Perl of Margolin Hebrew Academy in Memphis said he laid out the texts the evening before a worship service in a conference room of the hotel.
On Saturday morning, he found the Torah and several prayer books defaced or written in with phrases that included, “Gentiles win, Jews lose” and “Submit to Satan”.
Online federal court records do not show when Baker has an initial court date or if he has a lawyer.