Man gets six months in jail for vandalizing an Islamic center at Rutgers University

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A New Jersey man has been sentenced to six months in jail for breaking into a Rutgers University Islamic center on the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr and vandalizing it.

Jacob Beacher, of North Plainfield, will also have to serve a year of supervised release once he gets out under the terms of the sentence he received Tuesday. He pleaded guilty in October to the federal hate crime of damaging religious property.

Beacher initially was charged in April 2024 with single counts of intentional or attempted obstruction of religious practice and making false statements to federal authorities. The charges stemmed from a break-in at the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

Prosecutors have said Beacher damaged property at the site, including several religious artifacts and numerous other items that contained holy language from the Quran, Islam’s sacred scripture. Authorities said Beacher also stole a Palestinian flag and a charity box belonging to the center.

Beacher is not affiliated with Rutgers, officials have said.

The site was unoccupied when the break-in occurred around 2:40 a.m., prosecutors said. The overall damage was estimated at $40,000.

While speaking with the FBI two days after the break-in, Beacher said he was the person seen near the center in surveillance video, but he denied breaking into the site. The incident came a few weeks after the state attorney general’s office had reported a recent spike in bias incidents in New Jersey.