After toppling 499 headstones in January, four teenagers were sentenced today in Middlesex County, NJ. The Star-Ledger reports the judge gave the teens, ages 15-17, 18 months probation, plus paying some of the damages, writing letters of apology, serving 100 hours of "community service keeping community cemeteries clean" and attending "a 12-week course studying the Holocaust."
Three of the teens struck on New Year's day, toppling 17 headstones, and then came back a few days later and toppled more. Investigators determined that their motive was not anti-Semitism but plain old "alcohol-fueled" boredom that spurred their 4-hour spree overturning headstones, some of which weighed over a ton.
Congregation Poile Zedek in New Brunswick estimates it will cost $200,000 to repair the headstones, and one of the defendants was ordered to pay $5,000 in damages while the three others were told to pay $2,500. And apparently the parents of two of the boys offered to help repair the headstones - it's unclear if their sons made the same offer.
