Defendants (l to r) James Turetzkin, Lauren Magaw and Philip Williams waiting to plead guilty. Photos by Mary Walton
By Charles Layton
Four defendants in the Monmouth County rock-throwing vandalism case pleaded guilty to criminal mischief on Thursday and agreed to pay a total of $115,096 in restitution to 180 victims in Ocean Grove and elsewhere.
Each defendant also agreed to perform 75 hours of supervised community service.
By affirming their guilt under a negotiated plea agreement, they avoided the possibility of a jury trial and, if convicted, possible imprisonment for up to five years.
The acts of vandalism — the smashing of windows of cars and houses — took place between early November of last year and April 13, when they were caught in the act and arrested by police in Spring Lake.
Prosecutor Kathleen Bycsek said the late-night window-smashing incidents took place in 17 different Monmouth County towns, including Neptune Township. Police have said that 33 of those crimes occurred in Ocean Grove from January through March of this year.
Each defendant stood separately before Judge Thomas Scully in Monmouth County Superior Court and testified to his or her part in the months-long rampage. Philip Williams, 25, of Neptune Township admitted to driving the car while his co-defendants hurled rocks through the windows of houses and parked vehicles.
Tyler Emmons. Threw rocks.
Tyler Emmons, 18, of Neptune Township and James Turetzkin, 20, of Neptune City testified that they participated in the rock throwing.
Lauren Magaw, 21, of Neptune said under questioning by her attorney that she did not actually throw rocks but agreed that she had accompanied the others, “egged them on” and “helped facilitate” the crimes by handing rocks to the others, and that she was “as culpable” as the others. Turetzkin, however, testified that Magaw threw rocks as well.
The four agreed to be “jointly and severally” liable for the $115,096 in damages. If any of the four prove unable to pay their share, due to death, disappearance or other circumstances, the others would be required to make up the difference.
Insurance companies are to receive $38,234 of the restitution money. The other $76,862 will go directly to victims. Bycsek said the amount of the damages was determined in consultation with the victims “through numerous phone conversations.”
It was unclear over what time period the restitution must be paid.
Philip Williams. Drove the car.
Judge Scully said the defendants are to remain on probation. As part of the plea agreement they must apply to Pretrial Intervention, a program designed for first-time offenders. If they violate the plea agreement they could still be indicted and tried. However, by complying fully with the conditions of the Pretrial Intervention program and staying out of trouble they will have an opportunity to avoid the stigma of a criminal conviction on their permanent records.
The four defendants are all legal adults, although Emmons was 17 until April 3 of this year and therefore a juvenile during most of the crime spree. In exchange for his pleading guilty as an adult, along with the others, the state dismissed the juvenile complaints against him.
A fifth participant in the crimes was 17 at the time of the arrests. His name has not been released, and he is being treated as a juvenile.
The five were arrested in Spring Lake shortly after midnight on April 13 following reports of broken windows. According to Spring Lake police, all the defendants confessed in video interviews to the entire months-long rash of window-breaking incidents. Police said they recovered a bag filled with large rocks in the defendants’ SUV at the time of their arrest.
Their vandalism began, attorneys said, in early November of last year.
Lauren Magaw. Handed out rocks and “egged on” the others.
James Turetzkin. Threw rocks.
Unreal … 24 years old ???? This kid is a joke of a man and I heard is a firefighter. How can you be a firefighter and throw rocks in peoples homes ? I’m sick.
MNJ You are so right. My home was robbed along with 10 other homes in the area about 7 or 8 years ago. The police had caught the perp with his bounty from at least 10 homes, he had priors an arms length long, and what was his sentence……..5 years probation. Isn’t that wonderful.
Wisher: The problem is not that we are too quick to put people in prison — or we put too many in prison — it’s that we don’t put enough people in prison for longer. America is a nation that allows tremendous personal freedom. There is an element of people who abuse this freedom and they need to spend their lives in prison.
I believe that the criminal justice system is way too soft on criminals. The non-punishment of these dangerous criminals who threw big rocks into peoples’ homes is but one example. Weak and ineffective prosecutors and judges, such as in this case, who do not hold criminals accountable, is why so many criminals feel free to rob, kill and destroy.
@ JW – Hopefully the community service would involve installing car and house windows, for free of course 🙂
Any word on what kind of community service these characters will perform?
I hope the punishments given to these people lead to rehabilitation. People need time to mature, and I hope they do. And there may be factors that are unknown to us that fed into the behavior that the PTI* program can begin to address. Maybe if they got help when they were younger, some of the people that wind up in New Jersey’s nation of half-way horror houses would have been rehabilitated. I would much rather see them wandering the halls of PTI in their twenties, than wandering the streets of Ocean Grove in their forties.
The last thing we should do with criminals is to just put them all away, which has been shown in many cases to make them worse, and on the taxpayer dime. The United States has an incarceration addiction. We have 5 percent of the population, and 25 percent of the world’s inmates.
Why don’t the conservatives try to lower the prison populations? It is a big government solution that doesn’t work. Take some of the laws that create mandatory jail time for minor offenses off the books, and find creative private sector ways to deal with some of these social problems.
(*Ed. note: PTI stands for New Jersey’s Pre Trial Intervention program, which seeks to render early rehabilitative services to young and first-time offenders.)
Hey Formergrover…..We don’t miss you. If it was your car how would your feel? You have no idea how religion fits in. If kids are taught to respect other people and property, this wouldn’t have happened.
This judge almost did his job; there should have been jail time because this was plotted out beforehand and was repeated many nights.
The issue that is most disturbing here is that these adults had no hesitation about throwing large rocks through the windows of people’s homes. Obviously they did not care if a person or animal was on the other side. It does not take a genius to realize that a death could have occurred. They were having FUN. Pretty scary that they are walking free in society.
No trial. No fine. No prison. No significant police record. Is this justice? Does this deter the next set of hooligans from doing the same?
The four defendants each pleaded guilty to criminal mischief, which is a third-degree crime if the person purposely damages property in an amount of $2,000 or more. The maximum penalty for that is five years in prison plus a $15,000 fine. If the person causes damages of less than $2,000 but more than $500, the prison term can still be up to 18 months with a fine up to $10,000. Criminal mischief is considered a serious offense.
Judge Scully told the defendants that if their cases went to trial and they were convicted they could receive up to five years plus fines up to $15,000. A trial, and the prospect of prison time, was waived by the state under the terms of the plea agreement. However, should any defendant fail to live up to the terms of the agreement, he could still face indictment by a grand jury, trial and a prison sentence.
Elf: it seems that even though the total is a significant sum, they have been charged with multiple counts of a lower crime each of which carries a lower penalty.
180 victims in 17 towns!!??…. over $100K restitution….!!?? So tell us, Debbie Clayton, how is this not news-worthy? Maybe you ought to get some new friends instead of pathetically defending these.
So it seems all agree — there is no meaninful penalty for criminal mischief other than paying for whatever actual damage is inflicted. Seems pretty lax given the scale and repeat nature of these crimes, but whatever.
Wow, for a religious community you people sure are not forgiving. I am so glad I am no longer a resident with the way the community has changed.
Abbott–there was no stealing or theft involved, so your analogy seems way off target. Such a theft, or an assaultive injury to any person, would have put this in a much more serious category than criminal mischief.
I think this is a reasonable settlement considering that they pleaded guilty and did not contest the charges. My only reservation about the settlement is that the victims should also be compensated for their anxiety and wasted time dealing the with damages.
Abbott: If you committed the crimes of theft that you have stated, then they would be felony crimes in the 2nd or 3rd degree, as opposed to a disorderly persons offense, so they should carry a high penalty
By the logic of the prosecutor (and Bullets), I could go out and steal 5 cars and crash them through abusive joy riding. If I get caught stealing a 6th car, then all I have to do is pay restitution and I’m off the hook with no criminal record. Or maybe I could steal 5 plasma TVs. Should I ever get caught I just pay for the TVs. Should we have a justice system that exacts no penalty except dollar for dollar restitution, should you be unlucky and get caught?
I am with Oldtimer here — these criminals should have gone to prison. This outcome is disgusting.
As a point of information, commenter Debbie Clayton is a personal friend of Magaw and Williams. She is entitled to her opinion.
A plea of guilty for criminal mischief and restitution is what I would have expected for this crime. The jail system in NJ is overcrowded as it stands, and jail time for a disorderly persons offense is not common.
This is a terrible miscarrage of justice — a perversion of the legal system. Clearly the prosecutor is weak and does not believe in holding criminals fully accountable for their crimes.
Here we have adult criminals who repeatedly, over months and in many communities, caused senseless destruction of property. They clearly enjoyed doing these crimes as they repeated them many, many times. They also carefully planned them, collecting and storing rocks. To top it off, they were caught red-handed in the act and confessed on videotape.
All of this and they essentially get off scott free. No criminal should be able to buy off the criminal justice system by simply writing a check (About $28K per defendant, which is a very cheap price to pay to avoid the prison time they deserve). Note that there was no penalty — just actual restitution. Did it not occur to the prosecution that perhaps the criminals should pay something more than the damages they actually caused so that there would at least be some modicum of punishment involved in this deal? Community service is a joke. These criminals should have served 2-3 years in prison and had permanent records as the felons that they are.
No one should be surprised why there is so much crime in the area — there are really no penalties for being a criminal!! We need a new prosecutor!
I can’t believe that u actually printed and photographed this story. Blah blah. I’m so sick of hearing about it. You people have way too much time on your hands. Why don’t you write about something actually news worthy.