By Vic Monaco, Managing Editor
TRENTON All three of the young East Windsor men charged with scrawling anti-Semitic and profane graffiti on monuments and streets signs in the township, Hightstown and Roosevelt will be subject to three years of probation and be required to make full restitution.
Nikolai Afanassenkov, 20, and Max Drazdik, 19, were accepted into a pre-trial intervention program Thursday, as was Nicholas Kurahara, 19, earlier this month, according to Mercer County Prosecutor’s spokeswoman Casey DeBlasio.
In addition to the probation, she said, they must attend diversity training and perform 150 hours of community service, split between East Windsor and Hightstown. The restitution, she added, is expected to exceed a total of $1,500.
The three men, all recent graduate of Hightstown High School and bandmates, were charged in February 2008 with bias intimidation and bias-based criminal mischief.
The pre-trail intervention program is often availed with defendants, like the three in question, who have little or no prior criminal record.
The three men are accused of, in January 2008, drawing a 1-square-foot swastika on the newly erected fountain at The Point in Hightstown; hateful graffiti on the memorial statue of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, two street signs, and the post office in Roosevelt; and another swastika on Etra Road in East Windsor.
They turned themselves into police soon after being charged.
The acts sparked outrage in the three towns, and more than 100 people gathered at The Point for a candlelight protest vigil shortly after the incidents.
