PITTSBURGH — David Heyman with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh was at the Allegheny County Courthouse to watch Jeremy Brokaw plead guilty to throwing dozens of antisemitic flyers out of his car window, onto five streets in Squirrel Hill.
“While he was trying to intimidate the neighborhood, he ended up having the opposite effect. The community came together and it rallied. And we cooperated with law enforcement so that there was a penalty for his crime,” Heyman said.
Brokaw was initially convicted of 160 counts of littering, and fined $50,000 for tossing the flyers, but prosecutors and his attorney negotiated a plea deal to greatly reduce the penalty.
Instead, he pleaded guilty to just five counts of littering, and will pay a $1,500 fine.
After his hearing, Brokaw and his attorney spoke shockingly and defended his actions — despite taking a plea deal moments earlier.
“Why are they concerned about what’s on a flyer? If they don’t like what’s on the flyer, pick it up, and you don’t like it... throw it out,” defense attorney Joshua Jones said.
According to Jones, the fact that Brokaw decided to disperse the flyers in the same neighborhood where the deadliest antisemitic attack is US history occurred — is something that shouldn’t be taken into consideration.
“That’s really not even something that should be entering this discussion,” he said. “The discussion is about antisemitism. It’s not even the same universe.”
Under the law in Pennsylvania, the Jewish Federation told us there is not a “hate crime” charge that could be enforced in this case.
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