By Charles Layton
Four young men and a young woman have been charged in connection with 33 cases of rock-throwing vandalism in Ocean Grove.
The Neptune Police Department announced the charges on Tuesday. The five were arrested in Spring Lake shortly after midnight on April 13 following complaints of similar vandalism in that community.
According to Spring Lake police, the five confessed in video interviews to a wide range of window-smashing over a period of months, mostly during this past winter. The vandalism was said to have occurred in 23 towns, all but one of which (Brick) are in Monmouth County.
More than 150 separate incidents were said to have been reported, and the reports were often the same – of young people cruising the streets in an SUV late at night, hurling stones and smashing car windows and the windows of houses.
Three of the five accused were charged as adults in the Ocean Grove cases: Philip David Williams, 24, of Neptune; James Joseph Turetzkin, 19, of Neptune City, and Lauren Ashley Magaw, 21, of Neptune. The other two defendants were both age 17 at the time of the Ocean Grove crimes and therefore were charged as juveniles. However, one of those, Tyler Emmons of Neptune, was charged as an adult in Spring Lake because by the time of that incident he had turned 18.
All were charged with 3rd degree criminal mischief, an offense applying to persons who purposely or knowingly cause damage of $2,000 or more. The complaints against the adults were referred to the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office for review. The complaints against the two juveniles were referred to Family Part of the New Jersey Superior Court in Monmouth County.
The Ocean Grove crimes took place in January through March of this year.