Monticello, NY – Raymond Surerus was sentenced to prison for his role in vandalizing a bungalow colony synagogue last fall, in a case that was initially charged as a hate crime.
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In September, Surerus, 18, and his friends Dominick DePrizio, 17, and Anthony Wingert, 18, broke into the synagogue at White Rock, an Orthodox Jewish bungalow colony on Southwoods Drive in Monticello. They spray-painted swastikas and Hitler’s name and sprayed paint on holy books. A fourth friend, 17-year-old Daniel Price, sprayed fire extinguishers all over the colony over the summer.
Prosecutors, the court and the defense came up with a unique approach to the case, in which all four teens were originally charged with burglary as a hate crime. Surerus, Price and Wingert attended a weeklong, intensive seminar at Sullivan County Community College on the origins of anti-Semitism and the history of the Jewish people. They performed community service and met several times with a rabbi for counseling.
The teenagers were allowed to plead guilty to third-degree burglary without the hate-crime designation that could have meant stiffer sentences.
“I think you and the other young men have all learned what a hate crime is all about,” Judge Frank LaBuda told Surerus. “The system of justice has given you the opportunity to make amends. I think you’ve done that.”
Surerus was sentenced to one to three years in prison, with a recommendation for shock incarceration, a boot-camp-style program that could have him free again in six to eight months.
DePrizio, who was on felony probation at the time of the synagogue vandalism, was sentenced May 26 to two to six years in prison. Wingert will be sentenced today, and Price tomorrow.
U/D: 06/14/06 07:29
Wingert, 18, was sentenced to one to three years in prison.