Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Trump DOJ’s Bid To Keep Suspected Synagogue Vandal Behind Bars Yields Fruit

(Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche intervened in New Mexico federal court to keep a man accused of smashing windows of two Jewish properties in Albuquerque jailed until his trial. 

Blanche signed a memorandum Monday arguing Rex Crofton, 25, should be kept in jail until trial because he poses a risk to the public due to his mental state, threats of violence and access to firearms. A federal magistrate ordered Crofton be remanded to federal custody after a detention hearing Tuesday.

Crofton’s increasingly racist and erratic behavior concerned his friends and family, some of whom he threatened, according to text messages and statements included in court records. In a memorandum to the court signed by Blanch and First Assistant United States Attorney Ryan Ellison, prosecutors said Crofton “has already shown himself to be willing to escalate from hateful speech to destructive action.”

Crofton had access to multiple firearms, according to court records, and is scheduled for an Extreme Risk Firearm Protection hearing in New Mexico district court on Wednesday.

“Fortunately, no one was injured in the charged incidents,” stated Blanche’s memorandum. “However, the defendant’s past actions, his violent speech, and his access to weapons indicate that he has the desire and ability to engage in conduct that could harm many people. Due to his current mental condition, even the strictest conditions of release could not mitigate these dangers.”

Before leaving his parents’ house prior to the attacks on June 2, Crofton allegedly said he was “going to go kill Jews.” Prosecutors noted that according to Crofton’s family, “it was not uncommon for him to make these types of statements.” He had been diagnosed with bipolar and multiple personality disorders in the past, and his family supported his detention pending trial, Blanche’s letter states.

Text messages to undisclosed individuals included in the filing show several examples of Crofton making antisemitic statements before the alleged attacks. “I’m a diaper proud Nazi,” Crofton wrote in one text, according to prosecutors, before correcting it to “I’mma die a proud Nazi.”

Court documents describe Crofton driving to Congregation Albert Synagogue in the afternoon of June 2, where he smashed the front windows of the facility with a crowbar then “flipped off” the synagogue, according to a witness. He then drove to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque approximately eight minutes away where he attempted to break the bulletproof glass at the entrance, alarming the facility enough to send emergency closure notification to parents whose children were attending programming at the center, according to court records.

The FBI surveilled Crofton’s listed address when he left the next morning, “FBI personnel followed Crofton in their vehicles but lost him,” court records state. Agents asked the owner of the house where Crofton was living to call him with assurances of safety, and she convinced him to surrender. Albuquerque police placed him in custody when he returned.

After his arrest, he was transferred to federal custody last Thursday.