By Peggy Wright
Daily Record
November 23, 2011
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20111122/NJNEWS/311220020/Bail-reduced-man-accused-smashing-Mendham-monument-victims-sex-abuse?odyssey=nav|head
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| The shattered remains of the millstone memorial, dedicated to childhood victims of sexual abuse, as it appeared earlier this week at St. Joseph's Church in Mendham. / BOB KARP/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER |
Bail was lowered Tuesday from $25,000 to $10,000 for a Mendham resident accused of using a sledgehammer to demolish a monument outside St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church that was dedicated to victims of child sexual abuse.
State Superior Court Judge Stuart Minkowitz ordered a bail reduction, including the option of paying 10 percent in cash, for Gordon Ellis, 37, because he has just one minor offense in his past, and bail guidelines for the charges permit the reduction.
Ellis, sporting shoulder-length hair and a goatee, appeared for the bail review via a camera link between the courtroom and the Morris County Jail. Minkowitz told him he had the right to remain silent, but asked whether he had anything to say in regard to bail. The judge reviewed the bail by phone because he, like other judges across the state, is attending the annual judicial college.
"Uh, yes, I'd just like to say the lowest bail would be great," Ellis said, before his words faded out because of a connection glitch. He is not a St. Joseph's parishioner.
Ellis was charged Friday with criminal mischief, defacement of property, desecration of a memorial and possession of a weapon, the sledgehammer, for an unlawful purpose. Without a job and last employed as a chef, he allegedly was observed by a witness smashing the black basalt millstone before dropping the sledgehammer.
The witness called police and followed Ellis down the street until police arrived. A woman who answered the phone at Ellis' home Tuesday declined comment, and Mendham Police Chief John Taylor said he did not want to compromise the investigation by discussing any statements that Ellis may have given police.
The memorial, dedicated in 2004, is situated on the grounds of the church where James T. Hanley, a former pastor who since has been defrocked, admittedly molested children decades ago.
Some of Hanley's victims proposed the monument, and it has inscribed on it a Bible passage that says it is better to be cast into the sea with a millstone than to harm a child.
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