Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Saul Colon was arraigned today on charges of grand larceny and burglary for stealing a safe containing a Torah scroll from a Far Rockaway yeshiva in May.

District Attorney Katz said, “This defendant and an accomplice are alleged to have broken into a religious school and acted deeply disrespectfully toward the Jewish community by stealing a sacred Torah scroll. To the yeshiva, this Torah was invaluable and could never be replaced. My office and the NYPD never gave up on this case and several months later, we arrested one of the suspects and were able to recover the Torah. The investigation is ongoing and we ask anyone with information about the second suspect to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.”

Colon, 37, of Parsons Boulevard in Flushing, was indicted by a grand jury before Queens Supreme Court Judge Karen Gopee on charges of second-degree grand larceny, third-degree burglary and fourth-degree grand larceny.

If convicted, Colon faces up to 15 years in prison. Judge Gopee ordered the defendant to appear in court on September 19.

According to the indictment:

• On May 7, at approximately 2:30 a.m., a video surveillance recording shows defendant Colon and another man, who was not arrested, exiting a Ford Taurus at Siach Yitzchok, a religious school located at 1045 Beach 9th Street in Far Rockaway.
• The defendant and the other individual used a hand truck to remove a locked safe from the school office, loaded it into their car, and then left the area.
• Several hours later, a school administrator discovered that the safe containing the Torah was missing and called the police.
• After an extensive investigation, the NYPD arrested the perpetrator in August and found the safe in a wooded area near the Van Wyck Expressway in Kew Gardens Hills. The water-damaged Torah scroll was found in the safe and returned to the family who had originally donated the Torah to the school.

The investigation was led by Detective James Essig Jr. of the NYPD’s Queens Major Case Squad Division.

Assistant District Attorney Danielle Catinella of the District Attorney’s Office’s Felony Trial Bureau IV is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Karen H. Rankin, Bureau Chief, and Assistant Bureau Chiefs Timothy J. Regan and Robert Ferino, and under the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney for Superior Court Trials Pishoy B. Yacoub.