Three Charged with Hate Crimes Related to Defacing and Vandalizing Homes of the Brooklyn Museum’s Director and Board Members

­­­­Monday, November 4, 2024

Three Charged with Hate Crimes Related to Defacing and Vandalizing Homes of the Brooklyn Museum's Director and Board Members

Allegedly Splashed Red Paint, Left Threats at Victims' Homes; Charged with Making a Terroristic Threat as a Hate Crime, Criminal Mischief as a Hate Crime;

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a woman and two men were named in a 25-count indictment in which they are charged in connection with anti-Semitic incidents in Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill in Brooklyn and in Lenox Hill in Manhattan. The defendants allegedly targeted members of the Brooklyn Museum's Board of Directors who have Jewish-sounding names and did not target two board members who do not have Jewish-sounding names.

District Attorney Gonzalez said, "Acts of vandalism that target individuals in their own homes are a deeply disturbing violation meant to intimidate, terrorize, and instill fear. These defendants allegedly targeted museum board members with threats and anti-Semitic graffiti based on their perceived heritage. These actions are not protests; they are hate crimes, and we are deeply committed to holding accountable anyone who uses such unlawful tactics in Brooklyn."

The District Attorney identified the defendants as Taylor Pelton, 28, of Astoria, Queens, Samuel Seligson, 32, of Brooklyn, and Gabriel Schubiner, 36, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. They are variously charged in a 25-count indictment with making a terroristic threat as a hate crime, making a terroristic threat, third- and fourth-degree criminal mischief as a hate crime, third- and fourth-degree criminal mischief, making graffiti, possession of graffiti instruments, and fifth-degree conspiracy. Schubiner was arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun and released without bail. Seligson and Pelton are expected to be arraigned next week.

The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, the three defendants were allegedly captured on surveillance video gathering at 500 Saint Marks Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in the early morning hours of June 12, 2024. They allegedly entered the location and were present for over an hour. When they left the location all three defendants and three unapprehended others were captured carrying supplies to Pelton's car, a red Honda Fit, with Seligson directing the others to place items in the trunk.

The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, Pelton drove the defendants and unapprehended others to DeGraw Street and Bond Street in Boerum Hill, where Seligson, Schubiner and the unapprehended others are seen on video walking to Douglass Street with black bags. Douglass Street is where the residence of a member of the Brooklyn Museum's Board of Directors is located. A video camera at the location was allegedly painted over by Schubiner so it could not capture the identity of the defendants when they allegedly defaced the location using red paint, with the words, "Brooklyn Museum, blood on your hands" and left a banner with the victim's name, claiming she had "blood on your hands, war crimes, funds genocide" and several inverted red triangles on the banner.

The red triangles, according to the investigation are associated with Hamas, a terrorist group. A stencil found on the ground at the location had a fingerprint covered in red paint which was identified as belonging to Schubiner.

Furthermore, according to the District Attorney, it is alleged that Pelton then drove the group to the next location, the corner of Pierrepont Street and Hicks Street. Seligson and Schubiner are then allegedly captured approaching the residence of the Executive Director of the Brooklyn Museum. A video camera was allegedly painted over so it could not capture the identity of the defendants as they allegedly defaced the building with red paint, a banner which named the Director and called her a White Supremacist Zionist, with red handprints, the words "Blood on your hands," an anarchy symbol, and red inverted triangles painted on the banner and on the building. The defendants are then allegedly captured on video surveillance footage running from the location toward Pelton's car. The car then headed over the Manhattan Bridge and into Manhattan.

Finally, it is alleged, according to the investigation, Pelton drove to East 65^thStreet and First Avenue, where Schubiner and the unapprehended others are captured spraying red paint on a building on Fifth Avenue in Lenox Hill, which is the residence of Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Museum. They allegedly painted her name, the red inverted triangles and the anarchy symbol.

The case was investigated by New York City Police Detective Michael Rodriguez of the Hate Crimes Task Force and the entire HCTF, under the supervision of Chief Gary Marcus.

The District Attorney thanked the following individuals for their assistance on this case: Manhattan District Attorney Hate Crimes Bureau Chief Hannah Yu and Assistant District Attorney Alberto Gomez; KCDA Digital Forensic Analysts Austin Fedchock and Timothy Brown, of the Digital Evidence Lab; KCDA Hate Crimes Paralegal Michael Chung; KCDA Detective Investigators; the NYPD Latent Prints Lab and Gun Violence Suppression Squad.

The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Samantha Perlstein, of the District Attorney's Hate Crimes Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Ari Farkas, Deputy Chief of the Hate Crimes Bureau, and the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Kelli Muse, Chief of the Hate Crimes Bureau.

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