New York man pleads guilty to hate crime for antisemitic vandalism in front of Jewish Center

Caceres’s plea deal will require him to undergo six months of anti-bias training, 100 community service hours, and a guided tour of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center in Glen Cove, New York.

By David Swindle, The Algemeiner

A man from Long Island, New York pleaded guilty on Thursday to Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree as a Hate Crime, a felony, for spray-painting antisemitic phrases on fences and in front of a local Jewish center earlier this year.

In April, Sebastian Patino Caceres, 23, spray-painted “Free Palestine” on the sidewalk in front of the East Meadow Beth-El Jewish Center in East Meadow, New York, according to LongIsland.com, which reported the guilty plea.

He also spray-painted “Zionism is Nazism,” “Stop the Genocide,” “Free Palestine,” and “F—k Israel” on fences in front of homes.

Caceres’s plea deal will require him to undergo six months of anti-bias training, 100 community service hours, and a guided tour of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center in Glen Cove, New York.

If he does so then his sentence will be reduced to three years of probation and a misdemeanor. A failure to do so would result in the felony charge remaining and five years of probation.

“My prosecutors held this defendant responsible for his offensive actions with this plea to a felony hate crime today, but with the understanding that punitive measures alone will not stop this intolerant behavior,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement.

“It is through education and awareness that we can teach defendants about the gravity of their words and actions, change minds, promote kindness and compassion, and heal communities. This defendant has been given the opportunity to learn and grow from this criminal conduct.”