By Sarina Trangle
CEDARHURST, L.I. — Metropolitan Transportation Authority police arrested a Far Rockaway teenager who authorities said allegedly scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti on a Long Island Rail Road station while in the neighborhood where his Jewish yeshiva school is located.
Jonathan Schuster, 18, was charged with several counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime, criminal mischief and making graffiti, according to MTA police.
Authorities said Schuster, a senior at Priority-1: Torah Academy of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, used black marker to post anti-Semitic statements at the LIRR Cedarhurst station on at least eight occasions since December 2012.
Police said the graffiti typically contained expletives and was scrawled on advertising billboards on the platform.
The arrest came after a year-long investigation by MTA and Nassau County police officers that included monitoring surveillance cameras and sending undercover detectives to the station.
Police said they were still investigating three instances of anti-Semitic graffiti at the Lawrence LIRR station and one at the Hewlett Station.
