http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/03/03/2008-03-03_pace_university_student_who_dumped_quran.html
Pace University student who dumped Qurans in toilet gets community service
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, March 3rd 2008, 4:45 PM
A former Pace University student who twice threw copies of the Quran into a toilet at the school after disputes with Muslims pleaded guilty Monday to disorderly conduct in connection with the incidents.
Stanislav Shmulevich, 24, pleaded guilty as part of a deal in which he must do 300 hours of community service. He has completed about 80 hours of the service at a hospital, his lawyer said.
Shmulevich, of Brooklyn, admitted he tossed the Muslim holy books into toilets at Pace on Oct. 13, 2006, and Nov. 21, 2006. A criminal complaint says the Quran that was recovered in the October incident "was covered in feces."
In both cases, a teacher found the books in a men's room on the second floor of the school's main building in lower Manhattan.
Muslims consider the Quran a sacred writing that contains the direct word of God, and desecrating it is seen as an offense against God.
Detective Faisal Khan, who prepared the complaint, said Shmulevich told him "he committed the acts out of anger toward a group of Muslim students with whom he had a recent disagreement."
Shmulevich, a business major and immigrant from the former Soviet Union, initially was charged with two counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime. The charge is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
His lawyer, Glenn Morak, said he believed the disorderly conduct plea was an appropriate disposition.
"There was no hate crime here," Morak said. "He accepts responsibility, and he is repentant."
Shmulevich, the lawyer said, is no longer at Pace, which has about 14,000 students on its campuses in New York City and Westchester County.
