
Jake Finklestein's Legal Defense
Donation protected
This is my nephew Jake Finklestein. Jake is 18 and is currently under house arrest for something he didn’t do. In February of this year, A group of girls in Jake’s school made up a story in a chat room that they thought Jake was going to “shoot up the school”. Jake was arrested and his room, phone and computer were all searched extensively. They found nothing. Jake has no access to firearms or any other weapons. They found no plot in writing or social media posts which would point to a plot. All they found was a book about a school shooter that his teacher assigned as required reading and 2 gun-related words in his search history which were vocabulary words from his forensics class. Despite these explanations and no other evidence, the Vorhees police arrested him and committed him to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation under constant police guard. He was there for 10 days and when they could find nothing wrong with him, they discharged him and the police promptly took him to adult jail. Jake just turned 18 at the end of January. He spent 3 days in the Camden jail with adult prisoners until he was finally released to house arrest with an ankle monitor. Shorty afterwards, Jake’s school posted a story on their website stating that “Eastern threat claims against student were gossip”. This is a direct quote from the post-
“In a letter posted to the district's website, Melleby said a student who started a group chat about Finkelstein acknowledged she never heard him threaten to shoot fellow students.
"I just thought he would," the girl said when questioned by administrators.”
This was reported in the Courier Post on 3/3/18 and can be found easily if you want to see the article. There is another article in The Gloucester County Patch on 3/5/18 entitled, “Man arrested for threat posed no danger, school says”. Since the entire accusation was hearsay from kids who bullied him, we thought this would be the end of Jake’s nightmare but for some reason, the prosecutor wants to prosecute him as an adult for a 2nd degree charge which would send him to prison. Jake has been under house arrest since February with no end in site. Jake’s lawyer has been trying to get the charges dismissed or even greatly reduced since it appears that there is no evidence but the DA has been uncooperative and seems to want to make an example out of Jake or just make it known that he is tough on school violence.
Jake is the youngest of 3 children. His family has been struggling since Jake’s dad died 4 years ago. They were evicted from their home soon after his death. His mom is barely making ends meet and does not have the money for an extended legal battle to keep this young man from going to adult prison. I am starting this go-fund me to try to raise funds for Jake’s legal defense. All of the money donated will go directly to Jake’s legal fees. Jake’s a good kid who has been through a lot. He has been bullied relentlessly at school because he is a little socially awkward. He as been physically assaulted by other students and some of these events were recorded by students and put on youtube. Despite the abuse at school, Jake has always been happy and positive and like most kids who struggle though high school, he just wanted to get through it and move on with his life. Because of these false claims made by these girls, he missed his prom, school trip and much of his senior year. He has his whole life ahead of him and needs a fresh start, not to go to prison for the gossip started by bullies. He needs help and we are out of options except for an extended legal battle. Please consider donating to his legal defense fund and praying for him every day. Even a small donation will help greatly. Thank You.
“In a letter posted to the district's website, Melleby said a student who started a group chat about Finkelstein acknowledged she never heard him threaten to shoot fellow students.
"I just thought he would," the girl said when questioned by administrators.”
This was reported in the Courier Post on 3/3/18 and can be found easily if you want to see the article. There is another article in The Gloucester County Patch on 3/5/18 entitled, “Man arrested for threat posed no danger, school says”. Since the entire accusation was hearsay from kids who bullied him, we thought this would be the end of Jake’s nightmare but for some reason, the prosecutor wants to prosecute him as an adult for a 2nd degree charge which would send him to prison. Jake has been under house arrest since February with no end in site. Jake’s lawyer has been trying to get the charges dismissed or even greatly reduced since it appears that there is no evidence but the DA has been uncooperative and seems to want to make an example out of Jake or just make it known that he is tough on school violence.
Jake is the youngest of 3 children. His family has been struggling since Jake’s dad died 4 years ago. They were evicted from their home soon after his death. His mom is barely making ends meet and does not have the money for an extended legal battle to keep this young man from going to adult prison. I am starting this go-fund me to try to raise funds for Jake’s legal defense. All of the money donated will go directly to Jake’s legal fees. Jake’s a good kid who has been through a lot. He has been bullied relentlessly at school because he is a little socially awkward. He as been physically assaulted by other students and some of these events were recorded by students and put on youtube. Despite the abuse at school, Jake has always been happy and positive and like most kids who struggle though high school, he just wanted to get through it and move on with his life. Because of these false claims made by these girls, he missed his prom, school trip and much of his senior year. He has his whole life ahead of him and needs a fresh start, not to go to prison for the gossip started by bullies. He needs help and we are out of options except for an extended legal battle. Please consider donating to his legal defense fund and praying for him every day. Even a small donation will help greatly. Thank You.
Organizer and beneficiary
Dave Saunders
Organizer
Mount Laurel, NJ
Allison Strong
Beneficiary