Lakewood bias intimidation defendant given 15 months

Defying a court order while behind bars weighs in today's sentencing of an admitted bias-intimidation offender from Lakewood.

Scott F. Cooney was handed a 15-month state prison term in Ocean County Superior Court today for the fourth-degree charge, three months more than his lawyer had sought.

The sentence is shorter, by three months, of the possible maximum prison term for a fourth-degree count if convicted at trial.

According to information from the office of County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato, Judge James M. Blaney pointed out that Cooney wrote threatening letters to the victims and to the arresting officer, Lakewood PD Sergeant Leroy Marshall, while in jail, ignoring a court order to refrain from contact with the victims.

Blaney said that Cooney's conduct justified the longer term, and added that he would seek monitoring of his outgoing mail by the New Jersey Department of Corrections, authorities said.

Cooney pleaded guilty in June for actions that led to his August 2014 arrest. Victims told police that they had been harassed for several months. It culminated with the etching of a swastika into the family's front lawn with what appeared to be a lead pipe, officials said.

He had been released after posting $25,000 bail, but was returned to jail this past June for violating the no contact order, authorities said.