NEW YORK — Dan Sohail, 36, entered a federal not guilty plea Monday to charges accusing him of intentionally damaging religious property after he repeatedly drove his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in New York City earlier this year, court proceedings showed.
Federal authorities said the Jan. 28 incident damaged an entrance to the revered Jewish site but did not cause any injuries. Sohail was previously arrested on hate-crime charges in connection with the same incident, and the federal case came on top of those pending state matters, according to the court record described in the federal complaint.
The plea was entered through Sohail’s lawyer, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, who told the court that the government’s allegations did not fit the kind of intent described by prosecutors. Eisner-Grynberg said Sohail’s actions had not been “intentional in the manner described by the government,” according to reporting on the proceeding.
According to a court complaint described in reporting, federal authorities alleged Sohail deliberately rammed the side of the building with his car five consecutive times after clearing away stanchions and urging people to move out of the way. The complaint further said that after the crashes, Sohail told police he had lost control of the vehicle and pressed on the gas with his heavy boots.
In court, prosecutors acknowledged concerns about Sohail’s mental health while arguing that his conduct posed a continued danger. At arraignment, prosecutor Eric Silverberg acknowledged “very significant mental health concerns” about Sohail and said the behavior was dangerous, according to reporting.
The proceeding also included details about Sohail’s background and his connection to the Chabad community. Eisner-Grynberg said Sohail is in the process of converting to Judaism and that he had visited the Chabad Lubavitch site before; reporting said Sohail wore a yarmulke in court and did not speak beyond answering standard yes-or-no questions.
Federal prosecutors’ case carries a potential maximum penalty of three years in prison, according to the charge described in the reporting, with the threshold tied to whether the damage exceeded $5,000. Sohail was scheduled to remain in custody ahead of a bail hearing set for Wednesday, with reporting saying he would be held in a Brooklyn federal jail.
Defense counsel also described how Sohail wanted to return to the city jail where he had been held since the crash, saying he was eager to be settled back in for the start of the Jewish holiday Purim at sunset Monday. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office declined to comment on the future of the state case, reporting said, adding only that the state case remains ongoing.
The case has drawn attention from outside the courtroom as well. The Department of Justice’s civil rights division chief, Harmeet Dhillon, highlighted the federal case in a social media post that deplored “attacks on houses of worship,” according to the reporting described in the federal record.
Chabad spokesperson declined to comment on the federal case and on the cost of damage to the door, reporting said. The Chabad headquarters has been under heavy police presence for years, and the January incident unfolded against a wider backdrop of past attacks at the site and in the surrounding Crown Heights area.
In 1991, reporting said, the Chabad headquarters area was at the epicenter of the Crown Heights riots, and in 2014, a disturbed man entered the synagogue and stabbed a rabbinical student before being shot dead by police. Schneerson died in 1994, but remains a revered figure globally, and reporting noted the Jan. 28 crash occurred on the 75th anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson becoming the leader of the Lubavitch movement.