Lakewood, NJ – Mistaken identity over a prank caller who threatened to shoot up a yeshiva led heavily armed SWAT teams to storm a dormitory room, wake a 17-year-old student in the middle of the night and interrogate him for hours before realizing they had the wrong man, according a lawsuit filed against two local police departments.
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That student, Yeuda Palok, accepted a $50,000 settlement from Lakewood and Jackson police recently, $25,000 from each department.
The now 20-year-old sued over the May 9, 2007, incident, claiming the 3:30 a.m. “Gestapo-like” raid, during which he said he was “badgered, belittled, and browbeat” by police officers, caused him severe physical and psychological injury, according to the complaint.
Guy Ryan, the attorney representing Lakewood Township, said Palok, an Israeli citizen, interviewed with police voluntarily and admitted in his court deposition he was not physically assaulted.
According to Ryan, police arrived at the Hor Hatalmud Rabbinical College on Park Avenue after receiving calls from someone claiming to be Palok who said he was “going to start shooting people.” Officers entered the dorm room with permission from the school’s dean and saw the number used to make the threatening calls on Palok’s cell phone, leading them to suspect he was involved, Ryan said.
“This was right after the Virginia Tech shooting, so clearly police had an obligation to take this seriously,” the attorney said, referring to the April 16, 2007, campus shooting in which 32 people were killed.
The threats turned out to be a hoax, the caller was never identified and no charges were made, Ryan said.
Both Lakewood and Jackson township officials confirmed the Dec. 7 settlements.
“It was for purely economic reasons,” Ryan said. “This was far less than what a trial would cost.”
A call to Palok’s attorney was not returned.
This will save his shver some money
25,000 from 2 P.D.? That’s it?! I smell a rat. He coulda sued and settled for a lot more with a decent attorney. Out of 50,000 his lawyer must be taking at least 20,000 and that leaves the poor yeshiva bochur with a small yerusha.
You can bet that all the meshulachim will be going to that Rabbinical College to raise funds very fast.
what a masive hachnusas kalah campain. lol
Atleast the tax money came back home. 25K less for Blue Claws.
If it was my son I would encourage him to return the money. A chance to make a Kiddush Hashem.
Why return the money? Consider the circumstances, it was just after the Virginia murders and the young man was not needlessly beat up.
I wonder if Das Torah would agree with me. What do you fellow readers think?
Read it again. There’s no prima facie evidence as you say. You’ve been reading too many mystery novels.
I was in yeshiva when it happened and i am happy for paloch he really deserves the money and they did beat him up and hopefully more bocherim will sue
Attaboy!!! They should make a class-action suit and all the bucherim will be high rollers!!! Sounds like a plan…
They couldn’t have gotten permission from the dean he got arrested also
I don’t know….. to me, it seems like the police were doing their job. Better safe than sorry, no?
welll ive been with yehuda since the raid happened he deserves all the money that they give him and more because these lakewood swat members were stupid people and decided to practice their tactics on a yeshive….way 2 go yuda!!!!!!!!
I say yeuda yueda best yeuda yeuda best…I’m happy someone from the yeshiva had the guts to stand up for themselves!!!…ur a good example and the rest that were traumatized should follow…and all the loosers that posted chillul hashem or grada mamesh he should give the $ bak, or whoever posted what he should do with it, ur a bunch of loosers and stfu!!!
The Lakewood police dept are a bunch of savages antisemits. The thing is that all the stupid “askonim” are in love with them
I’m not mixing in but all this bs about not having a search warrant is wrong if ur life was in danger and ur being held hostage do u want them to get a search warrant or come first and ask questions later?
Let’s not forget what cuausd the SWAT to come down in the first place, What a chilul hashem!
I was there it was scary then but now its fun 2 make fun of
This is typical of what is happening across the country. Organizations are settling frivolous lawsuits simply because it is cheaper than going to trial. For example, the little league agency that settled with parents of a kid who twisted his ankle sliding into second base and the parents claimed the little league was at fault because “he was not properly taught how to slide into base” The settlement? $125k, since going to trial would have cost upwards of $500k.
In this case, the police received a serious through of terrorism and acted at the address and phone# the call come from. They found that number in the room of the suspect, who was rightfully interrogated. There is no evidence that he was beaten, tortured or otherwise physically mishandled. As the cop quoted in the article says, this was purely economic.
How was the number traced to his phone if he actually did not make the call?
Any notice how the ones claiming to be his friends, all have grammar issues? Not even one spelled a single sentence correctly, or used proper punctuation marks. Sad to see these “wise” yeshiva bochurim so ignorant. Its pathetic. Lakewood FML. Where is this “lakewood eer hotorah” going to be in 10 years with out a single person spelling normally? Its beyond me.
Hor Hatalmud Rabbinical College ???? They meant Ohr Chodosh!!!
What is Hor Hatalmud Rabbinical College anyway??!?!