NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park Press
Written by
Peggy Wright
@peggywrightDR
Apologizing and saying he had “no excuse” for his crime, a 39-year-old mentally ill man was sentenced Friday to probation and continued psychiatric treatment and ordered to pay $7,500 restitution for sledgehammering a monument in Mendham dedicated to victims of sexual abuse by priests.
Recognizing that former Mendham resident Gordon Ellis, who now lives in Morristown, has a documented history of mental illness, Assistant Morris County Prosecutor Anthony Scibetta last month had extended a plea offer of probation, restitution and continued treatment to the defendant.
Ellis accepted the deal and the Prosecutor’s Office downgraded an original third-degree charge of criminal mischief to a disorderly persons offense of criminal mischief. State Superior Court Judge Mary Gibbons Whipple, sitting in Morristown, on Friday sentenced Ellis to two years’ probation, continued treatment and $7,500 restitution to cover the damage Ellis caused on Nov. 18, 2011, when he used a sledgehammer to destroy a 400-pound millstone memorial erected outside St. Joseph Church in Mendham.
“I would like to personally apologize to St. Joseph’s and the support group they offer. They do a good thing and I put a black mark against that. I’m sorry and I have no excuse for it,” Ellis told the judge.
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