Police Charge 10 Lakewood Residents at Illegal Engagement Party

Lakewood, N.J. police vehicles. (Photo: Lakewood Police Department/Facebook)

Lakewood police have, again, charged homeowners for hosting a social gathering in violation of a state social distancing order in place to stem to spread of coronavirus. But this time, police heightened the charges against the homeowners to include child endangerment and also cited partygoers in addition to the hosts.

The incident occurred at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, which issued a statement Tuesday night. After receiving a call, police arrived at a Spruce Street residence to find a group of individuals, including children, on the front lawn and inside the residence.

The officers made contact with the owners of the residence who hosted the gathering, which turned out to be an engagement party, the statement said. Charged with violating Gov. Phil Murphy’s social distancing order were Yaakov Kaufman, 47, and Eti Kaufman, 45. Both Yaakov Kaufman and Eti Kaufman were also charged with six counts of child endangerment – each count relating to one of their six minor children who were in attendance at the gathering. Neither Kaufman was listed as an inmate at the Ocean County Jail Tuesday night.

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The attendees charged were: Joshua Lichtenstein, 54, of Lakewood; Brocha Lichtenstein, 22, of Lakewood; Tzipora Wolfe, 24, of Lakewood; Shmuel Kaufman, 23, of Lakewood; Syril Lichtenstein, 54, of Lakewood; Samuel Wolfe, 27, of Lakewood; Michael Zimmerman, 99, of Lakewood; and Ruky Zimmerman, 21, of Lakewood.