A New Jersey man pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday to intentionally damaging the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s global headquarters in Crown Heights by ramming his car into the building several times during a memorial service earlier this year.
Dan Sohail, 36, of Carteret, New Jersey, admitted to one count of intentionally damaging religious property, a federal civil rights charge that carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison, up to $250,000 in fines and roughly $19,000 in restitution to the synagogue.
Federal prosecutors did not pursue hate crime charges as part of the plea agreement. Prosecutors estimated that federal sentencing guidelines call for zero to six months in prison.
The plea resolves the federal case against Sohail, who was arrested at the scene on Jan. 28 after driving his 2012 Honda Accord into the side entrance of the synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway during an event marking the anniversary of the death of the Chabad movement’s spiritual leader. Dozens of people were inside at the time. No one was injured.
According to a criminal complaint, Sohail pulled up to the side entrance around 8:40 p.m., got out of his car, moved protective stanchions and gestured for congregants to move away from the doors.
He then returned to his vehicle and accelerated into the entrance, reversing and ramming it four more times, the complaint states. Prosecutors said the impact knocked the door off its hinges and destroyed his car’s front bumper.
The Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters is widely recognized as the global center of the Hasidic movement and has served as a synagogue and home to the group’s spiritual leaders since the 1940s.
Before U.S. District Judge Eric Vitaliano, Sohail arrived in a Rikers-issued jumpsuit with long, unkempt hair and a bushy beard. He answered the judge’s questions in a loud, clear voice and admitted to intentionally driving into the Chabad doors.
“I drove to the building in order to intentionally damage the building,” he said. “I drove into the door because it is the Chabad headquarters.”
In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brachah Goykadosh told the judge that Sohail “rammed his car not once, not twice, not three times, but four times.”
None of Sohail's friends or family were in the courtroom, but he acknowledged a rabbi with Chabad-Lubavitch in the gallery and appeared to wave at federal agents who carried a plastic bag full of his possessions.
After his arrest, Sohail told investigators he had recently learned he had Jewish heritage, had previously visited the headquarters and had been invited to the event that night, according to the complaint. He also told investigators he lost control of the car because of icy conditions and the heavy boots he was wearing.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at the time that surveillance footage showed Sohail parking a few blocks away, removing barricades and clearing snow from the entrance before driving into the building.
Police initially investigated the incident as a hate crime, but Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez dropped the state charges against Sohail and federal prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of a hate crime.
Sohail is scheduled to be sentenced later this year after probation officers calculate their sentencing recommendation. He is being transferred from Rikers to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
His attorney, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, declined to comment after the proceeding.
A spokesperson for Chabad-Lubavitch, Yaacov Behrman, was in the courtroom and expressed disappointment at the estimated sentencing guidelines of less than six months. He said that such a short sentence will send a message that it’s OK to attack Jewish people.
