Correction appended: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the person who found the vandalism on the Chabad building. An editing error also incorrectly stated the geographic origin of the Oct. 7 attack.
A judge ruled Thursday that the man accused of vandalizing Chabad UF Jewish Student Center remains mentally unable to stand trial.
Judge David P. Kreider made the determination during a felony forensics hearing at the Judge Stephan P. Mickle, Sr. Criminal Courthouse in Gainesville. The defendant, Geoffrey Lush, is to continue receiving treatment during a stay at the Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee, according to Holly Stacy, his public defender
On Nov. 24, 2023, Rabbi Aaron Notik found threatening phrases on a sign and a banner near the front of the Chabad building. The Gainesville Police Department arrested Lush a week later and accused him of vandalizing Chabad with words that the organization described as “anti-semitic graffiti and hateful slurs,” the Gainesville Sun reported. The day before the discovery of the vandalization, religiously charged threats were sent via email and voicemail to UF Hillel and the George A. Smathers Library with “overlapping themes,” according to court records.
The vandalization at Chabad wasn’t the first offense in Gainesville during the weeks and months following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack from Gaza. A few weeks prior, University of Florida police accused graduate student Simon Nicholas Lowry of vandalizing a pro-Israel sign located at a Jewish fraternity. He was trespassed from campus for three years and charged with a misdemeanor. That case also remains pending.
Lush was charged with two felonies as a result of the vandalism.
According to court records filed in March, Lush was diagnosed with mental illness and deemed incompetent for trial.
A court-ordered psychiatric examination found he had an unspecified schizophrenia condition, a psychotic disorder and used cannabis and another hallucinogenic, according to court records.
Since then, there have been six forensic hearings, with each concluding Lush as unfit to stand trial.
William Wall, a forensic peer specialist at Meridian Behavioral Healthcare Inc., attended the Thursday hearing.
He said when mental health and crime mix, final decisions are rarely ever made quickly. Wall visited Lush many times in jail and said, “he seemed like a nice guy.” More importantly, he said he could understand him because he had been in a position like his before.
Recovering from mental illness and substance abuse himself, he said his job is to help people that most people don’t want to help.
Kreider scheduled the next felony forensics hearing in Lush’s case for Sept. 11, 2025.
