August 22, 2015
A Lakewood, New Jersey man was sentenced Friday for harassing a gay couple and vandalizing their lawn with a Nazi symbol.
Scott Cooney has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to 4th-degree bias intimidation, prosecutors announced.
Cooney, 46, allegedly continued a pattern of verbal abuse while in jail awaiting sentencing.
Authorities say that Cooney wrote the victims as well as the arresting detective threatening letters while jailed, defying a judge's order to have no contact with the victims.
Cooney was arrested in August 2014 for verbally harassing the victims, a gay couple, and allegedly carving a swastika into their front lawn with a lead pipe.
According to NBC New York, the victims are Fred Blumberg, who is Jewish, and Pete Costello. The two told police that they had been harassed by Cooney for being gay in the months before the swastika was drawn.
