LOS ANGELES, CA – A Lacey native is being held without bail in a federal detention center in Los Angeles after he allegedly made numerous threats to New Jersey officials over the phone and via email.
Jonathan Lipman, 34, now of Los Angeles, stands accused of sending threatening messages to Monmouth and Ocean county officials. The FBI investigator who filed the criminal complaint provided the court with a timeline that began in May 2022.
The list of those named as targeted directly or by reference includes New Jersey Superior Court Judge Kimarie Rahill, Lacey Municipal Court Judge Benjamin Mabie, Ocean County Commissioner Gary Quinn, Oceanport Municipal Court Judge John Patti, Oceanport Police Chief Michael Kelly, and two Lacey police officers.
According to the complaint, messages shared on the Lacey Township Police Department’s Facebook page around May 3, 2022, by a user identifying as “Jonathan Lipman” included phrases such as “You and your officers and their families will regret your continued cover-up” and suggesting “their children will pay.”
Another post from the same username said, “Gary Quinn doesn’t belong on a plaque. He belongs on someone’s mantle.” Quinn previously served as Lacey mayor, committeeman, and school board member.
Upon reviewing the posts, Judge Mabie approved the local law enforcement’s request to temporarily ban Lipman from owning guns. The order was executed in California and remained in effect until it was up to a New Jersey Superior Court judge to determine whether to revoke it or establish it as a permanent measure.
The day after Judge Rahill replaced the temporary firearms restriction with a more permanent one, an email believed to have originated from Lipman was directed to Rahill. Officials said the message bore the subject line, “Is a photo illegal?” The email’s solitary content was a winking emoticon – ” ” – accompanied by an image depicting what appeared to be a lever-action rifle.
On the same day that email was sent, Lipman purportedly left a voicemail on a probation officer’s phone for her and Judge Rahill, saying, “it’s a shame there are kids that get shot up in schools instead of you people.”
Authorities allege Lipman sent several subsequent email messages expressing explicit wishes for Judge Rahill’s death. In one email, the sender discussed the notion of using knives instead of guns for a more prolonged and agonizing experience. Another email depicted a gruesome scenario involving historical figures and called for the execution of Judge Rahill, with graphic descriptions of her demise.
In reference to the threatening nature of the emails, Lipman has stated that his words were “merely fantasies and that no crime has ever been committed.”
Regarding the firearm, the federal investigator revealed that Lipman asserted that the gun in the picture was not real and served as a prop for the photograph. Additionally, Lipman claimed that he took the picture with the intention of invoking red flag laws against himself.
According to the criminal complaint, the FBI agent examined 400 emails Lipman allegedly sent to public officials between February 1, 2023, and September 22, 2023, using several email addresses. Lipman purportedly confessed to having sent government officials 3,000 emails, vowing to persist unless the government acknowledged perceived infringements on his rights.
Lipman’s Past
Lipman’s accusations against public officials stretch back well before his May 2022 post on the Lacey Police Department’s Facebook page. As early as 2020, Lipman had already established a YouTube channel as a platform to document what he perceived as harm inflicted upon him.
A graduate of Lacey High School in 2008, Lipman has alleged that he endured a decade of mistreatment during his time as a student within the district. He has accused the school board of neglecting to address instances of anti-Semitic behavior directed at him and disregarding an assault in which he claims a knife was held to his throat.
In a letter dated December 6, 2020, Attorney Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, representing the Lacey school district, corresponded with Lipman to confirm the outcome of a videoconference with him. Dev summed up the virtual meeting by saying the allegations of discrimination made when Lipman was in school had been appropriately addressed/investigated at that time.
Dev did not respond to a request for comment on the situation that has escalated since Lipman first established contact after his graduation.
Gavin Rozzi, a data scientist who runs the OPRA machine, a platform designed to facilitate searches under the Open Public Records Act, first came across Lipman’s claims on social media.
Rozzi, who also runs a Facebook page with the town’s name, said Lipman first began posting about the township, its administrative staff, the school board, and the police department – suggesting they were all covering up violent hate crimes.
Lipman allegedly made so many defamatory posts without evidence that Rozzi banned him from the Facebook page. Things became even worse when Lipman decided to use the OPRA machine to obtain his school records. He ultimately claimed Rozzi was part of the conspiracy to withhold documentation from him.
“His root claim is that some sort of incident happened at Lacey High School,” shared Rozzi. “That’s where he says someone held a knife to his throat in front of his locker. He also claims that teachers made fun of him, and he was called all kinds of names for being Jewish.”
“When I ran for school board, people would tell me these kinds of stories,” Rozzi continued. “There have been some high-profile cases of this nature involving the school district. It could have happened.”
After being banned, Lipman would attempt to return to both Facebook and the OPRA machine with new identities, Rozzi said.
It escalated to the point that Lipman emailed Rozzi about 20 times in the span of 10 minutes, making vague threats and accusations. The relentless nature of the overall unwanted contacts is something that is well-documented on Lipman’s YouTube channel.
Lipman is seen painstakingly dialing individual extensions and leaving voicemails seeking answers from numerous public officials. He records conversations with his parents, whom he calls by their first names, chastising them for not noticing signs he was deeply disturbed as a student. Lipman wants validation of what he says happened to him and seems to think it was all brushed aside.
“Don’t make it sound like we knew what was going on and did nothing about it,” says Lipman’s father as his son attempts to read something to him. “…Because you never said anything to us.”
Lipman, who starts reading over each time his father interrupts him, says his parents ignored signs he exhibited. He cites problems with insomnia that prevented him from sleeping on school days, having no social skills, and developing a binge eating disorder. Lipman also points out that he had no social life or romantic pairings worth mentioning.
Lipman refers to three-day psychiatric holds as unlawful imprisonment, saying he never claimed he would kill himself.
“All you people had to do was just give me closure,” wrote Lipman to accompany one of the videos. “To say it happened. I’m sorry. Here’s a cookie for your troubles.”
At some point, Lipman called the Lacey Police Department to report a new threat against him, which he claimed was made because he is Jewish. Lipman saw himself as the victim of yet another hate crime and admitted he had an attitude – but said the officer had no right to have one as well.
Lipman has uploaded a total of 42 videos documenting various experiences since he first began his channel. He discusses new groups of people persecuting him because he is Jewish. Lipman also chronicles a raid on his home and adds the Los Angeles Police Department, the FBI, and Verizon to the list of those who have wronged him.
No one has publicly come out and supported Lipman’s claims. The school district has also never produced any documentation regarding the circumstances described by the man now behind bars.
Lipman has been appointed a federal public defender, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for October 10, 2023. Considered innocent unless proven guilty, Lipman faces fines and up to five years in prison for federal felony charges of threat by interstate communication.
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