Coffee Humiliation Of Homeless Man Inspired By YouTube Channel, Prosecutor Says

LAKEWOOD, NJ -- The Orthodox man who paid a homeless man to pour coffee over his head while he shot video was inspired by an obscure YouTube channel, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said Saturday.

“This (incident) was not an organized effort in that community (the Orthodox community) to abuse the homeless,” said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

The incident, which was reported by citizen who stepped in on behalf of the homeless man, included an allegation that the Orthodox man took the video for posting on a website purported to contain videos of homeless people humiliating themselves. The website was purported to exist solely for the entertainment of other members of the Orthodox community.

Public sentiment remained angry, however, after photos were posted of Ron, the homeless man, in his makeshift home in a dugout, where he was found Friday evening by a concerned citizen who searched for him.

Della Fave said an exhaustive search of the internet by investigators in the High Tech Crimes Unit and investigation by Lakewood Sgt. Greg Staffordsmith found nothing to substantiate that such a website exists.

“The prosecutor (Joseph Coronato) told the High Tech Unit, ‘If this is an organized effort I want to know now,’ “ Della Fave said of the directive given to the investigators.

“What they found is that this was not an organized effort; there was no group conspiracy,” Della Fave said. “The video (of the incident) was never posted on the internet.”

The man who paid the homeless man, Ron, for the humiliating prank, told investigators he had been inspired by an obscure YouTube channel that shows pranks being played on unsuspecting homeless people, Della Fave said.

The perpetrator, he said, was described as “being slow,” meaning mentally disabled, by leaders of the Orthodox community. Della Fave also noted that the man has apologized several times since the incident occurred, in several different media reports.

Della Fave said the prosecutor’s office met with eaders from the Orthodox community and they put the message out to their community that this incident was in no way acceptable and that similar behavior would not be tolerated, he said.

“They were very helpful in getting that message out,” he said.

“People should be confident that we will run things down and thoroughly investigate to assure the safety of all of our citizens,” Della Fave said.

It will be a while before anger over the incident calms, however, in the wake of the photos of Ron in his makeshift home that were posted Friday night. They quickly made the rounds on Facebook, with people denouncing the man for “failing to follow through” on his promise to get Ron into a motel room for the duration of the blizzard.

It’s uncertain, however, what the real circumstances were that resulted in Ron being back in the dugout. Advocates for the homeless and those who work with homeless trying to assist them say often getting them into a shelter of any kind is problematic, in some cases because they do not feel safe out of the environment they are accustomed to living in.