Morris Co. Man Charged After Making Threats At NJ Synagogue

DEAL, NJ - A Morris County man has been charged with a bias crime after making obscene gestures and shouting profanity-laced comments at a Jersey Shore synagogue last week, prosecutors said.

Nicholas Skirvin, 44, of Denville was charged with bias intimidation, making terroristic threats and harassment, according to Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey.

At around 1 p.m. on Friday, Deal police responded to the Ohel Yaacob Congregation at the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Ocean Avenue North for a report of a man recording himself with a cell phone “while making obscene gestures and screaming profanity-laced ethnic and homophobic slurs and threats at synagogue congregants,” Linskey said.

Skirvin was arrested by members of the Deal Police Department on a beach in nearby Asbury Park later the same afternoon, Linskey said. He was transported to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution (MCCI) pending a detention hearing set for Monday, July 25.

The State has since filed a motion to keep Skirvin detained pending the outcome of the case, Linskey said.

“The hate-filled rhetoric heard last Friday in what is typically a peaceful neighborhood with a tight-knit Jewish community wasn’t just abhorrent and disturbing – it was criminal,” Linskey said. “The charges being announced today should send a clear message that we take such conduct with the utmost seriousness. There is no place for hate in Monmouth County – especially when it is the motive behind a crime.”