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An East Meadow man received four years’ probation Friday after failing to complete the conditions of his plea deal in a string of antisemitic graffiti attacks, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said.
Sebastian Patino Caceres, 23, pleaded guilty in January to fourth-degree criminal mischief as a hate crime — a felony — for spray-painting slurs on private fences and at the East Meadow Beth-El Jewish Center in April 2024. He was arrested within days of the vandalism being reported.
The graffiti included phrases such as “Zionism is Nazism,” “Stop the Genocide,” and “F‑Israel,” some scrawled over plastic sheeting protecting a mural of Israeli citizens taken hostage by Hamas during an attack in southern Israel in October 2023.
Patino Caceres also spray-painted “Free Palestine” across the front cement sidewalk of the Beth-El Jewish Center at 1400 Prospect Ave.
Under his plea agreement, Patino Caceres was expected to complete six months of bias prevention training, 100 hours of community service, and a guided tour of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center in Glen Cove. But he attended just one bias prevention session and made minimal effort on his community service, the Donnelly said.
Staff at the Holocaust Memorial described him as “closed-minded and lacking remorse or regret for his actions,” Donnelly said.
If he had followed through on the deal, Caceres’ conviction would have been reduced to a misdemeanor and would have received three years’ probation.
Because he failed to meet the three conditions, Nassau Judge Robert Schwartz imposed the felony charge and the four-year probation sentence.
“My office will never accept Antisemitism in Nassau County,” Donnelly said. “When a defendant refuses the chance to become a more tolerant member of society, they will meet the appropriate legal consequences.”
Top photo: (inset) Sebastian Patino Caceres, via Nassau County Police, and (main) Beth-El Jewish Center in East Meadow, from Google Maps street view.
