LAKEWOOD, NJ — (VinNews) This past Friday, a man who had threatened to drive to Lakewood, New Jersey and beat up Jews with a baseball bat had pled guilty to Bias Intimidation, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor, Bradley D. Bilhimer.
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The man was Anthony Lodespoto, age 43, from Howell Township. He sent messages containing these threats to a number of Facebook accounts on March 26th – including that of Governor Phil Murphy. Lodespoto pled guilty in front of the Honorable Guy P. Ryan, a Superior Court Judge.
Lodespoto had made these threats back in March over reported incidents that some members of Lakewood’s Jewish community were not in compliance with the governor’s order not to gather in groups of more than ten people.
The Ocean County Prosecutor said that as Lakewood detectives were investigating some of the Facebook threats the New Jersey State Police shared with the Lakewood detectives that Lodespoto had sent a similar threat to the governor’s account.
The case was handled by Assistant Prosecutor Shanon Chant-Berry, from Toms River. First Assistant Prosecutor Michael Nolan acknowledged her fine work in a statement. It was also handled by the Lakewood Township Police Department Detective Bureau and the New Jersey State Police.
Lodespoto pled guilty in exchange for the prosecutors agreeing to only ask for a six month sentence. Lodespoto still remains in the Ocean County Jail pending his sentencing.
In a Facebook post that Lodespoto himself posted, he walked into a 7-11 and feigned stomach cramps after eating packaged fruitcakes that were expired one month earlier.
Lodespoto is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday, September 25th, three days before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Repentance.
Why is it important to say that it’s 3 days before Yom Kippur?