Jewish Center vandals sentenced

NORWICH – Three teenagers involved in the vandalism of the Norwich Jewish Center received the maximum sentence allowable in Chenango County Family Court Wednesday.

Chenango County Judge W. Howard Sullivan began by reiterating the seriousness of the crime committed by the three youths. “If these crimes were committed by adults, the sentencing would result in a lengthy prison term,” he said. Sullivan said the boys would have faced charges of third degree burglary, a class D felony that could carry a state prison sentence had they been older.

Under the Family Law Act, Sullivan imposed a maximum sentence of two years probation for each defendant, 200 hours of community service to be completed by April 1, 2010, and rendered a long list of terms and conditions that are to be followed. The Norwich boys are also required to pay restitution through the probation department in the amount of $1,500 each. Damage at the Jewish Center in April was estimated at more than $200,000.

“This is to be paid by you,” said Sullivan, “not your parents.”

None of the boys are allowed to have contact with each other in any way, classroom placement excluded, and none are allowed near the Norwich Jewish Center or the Chenango County Council of the Arts buildings, both of which the boys damaged extensively.

Sullivan said that in his 32 years in the judicial system, he can not remember a case that has touched him as deeply as this one. He pointed out the damage to the synagogue hurt the Jewish community more than the children may realize. After explaining many of the Jewish families in this community have been hurt directly or through generations by the Holocaust, he said with the coverage of what happened, “this sent a message to them that it was all beginning again.” The judge reminded the boys that the Holocaust, too, started with benign acts of vandalism.