Federal prosecutors are asking a New York judge to keep Larry Montes behind bars while he awaits trial over an alleged antisemitic attack at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue.
James McDonald, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, filed a request for Montes’ detention, arguing that he remains a danger to the synagogue and its congregants, JNS reported. Montes was arrested following the Aug. 14 attack during Friday evening services and faces state and federal hate crime charges. State authorities had set bail at $10,000.
McDonald said Montes remained in state custody after his arrest before being transferred to federal custody on Aug. 23. In a letter to Judge Robert W. Lehrburger that day, the prosecutor highlighted a statement Montes allegedly made during his arrest: “that he planned to return to the synagogue at a later date."
Montes “poses a continued threat to the synagogue and its congregants," McDonald wrote.
The US attorney also pointed to what he described as Montes’ history of arrests and convictions involving violence or threats. Among them were a July 4, 2023, theft case in which Montes allegedly displayed a knife; July 16, 2019, theft and assault charges in which he allegedly struck a person “with a closed fist multiple times on the head"; and a May 23, 2019, assault case in New Jersey.
The New Jersey case “appears to be pending, and a bench warrant was issued for the defendant in approximately 2021," McDonald wrote.
“The defendant’s actions on the night of Aug. 14 and his statements to law enforcement after his arrest demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that he poses a danger of physically harming others, including those he perceives as Jewish or black," he wrote. “His vitriolic statements during his post-arrest make clear that his animosity toward Jews is deep-seated."
Prosecutors allege that Montes caused a disturbance inside the synagogue, charging toward the rabbi while claiming he was "God." He allegedly damaged property and called the roughly 375 people attending the service "fake Jews."
Authorities further accuse Montes of punching a 63-year-old woman in the face, causing her to fall. They also allege that he headbutted and spat at a Black security guard who was trying to remove him from the synagogue and directed a racial slur at the guard.