A 74-year-old property developer from Suffern has been arrested Thursday afternoon by the Ramapo police on hate crime charges for making anti-Semitic threats last month towards a Jewish real estate agent whom he owned money, an official within the Ramapo Police Department told TOT on Friday.
Police say 74-year-old Claudio Iodice is accused of threatening a 50-year-old Jewish real estate agent who came to Iodice’s office on Wednesday august 31 to ask for money that was owed to him.
Iodice needed to pay the real estate agent who found a customer to lease a building Iodice owned, police said. When the Jewish man came to collect his money, Iodice declined to pay him.
He even went as far to threaten him with violence if he did not leave the office.
“I’m Going to kill you Jew mother F…., You better stay in your car, I’ll beat the S… out of you, You Jew bastard, Iodice yelled at the man, a high ranking Ramapo police official told TOT.
The man became afraid, immediately left the location, and drove to the Ramapo Police Department to report the incident.
“Our detectives started an investigation and interviewed witnesses who confirmed the Jewish man’s story,” police said.
“As the investigation was ongoing, Mr. Iodice turned himself into the detectives yesterday and was charged with criminal obstruction of breathing and aggravated harassment as a hate crime in the second degree.”
Iodice is due in Airmont Court on a later date to answer the charges.
