New York, USA - The man who videotaped a petroleum jelly-covered protester on a rampage inside a Scientology center in Manhattan was arrested Tuesday for helping with the crime, police said.
Jacob Speregen, 21, of Brooklyn, was charged with two hate crimes including aggravated harassment and criminal mischief for helping Mahoud Samed Almahadin, aka Matt Connor, during the Jan. 14 incident.
The video was later posted on YouTube.
Speregen's mother questioned whether her son's right to freedom of speech was being violated.
Judith Noble, a professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, told the Daily News her son was busted two weeks after incident because Scientologists turned over surveillance tapes of Speregen filming the lubricated prank.
"A hate crime?" asked Noble from her Fort Hamilton home last night. "That is wild. It is a freedom of speech."
"They can film the kids protesting, but the kids can't film them? It is unbelievable," she said.
Almahadin smeared petroleum jelly on a TV set, shelves and himself at the Scientology center on W. 46th St., police said.
But Noble said her son never entered the building, filming Almahadin from outside.
"He is a film student," said Noble, adding her son is a part-time student at BMCC.
Cops said Speregen and Almahadin are members of Anonymous, a shadowy, Internet-based anti-Scientology group.
"On occasion he participates in this group Anonymous. It is a social thing for him. Jacob has a video camera. That is what he does," she said.
Noble said her son met Almahadin the day of the prank and never broke the law.
"It is ridiculous," she said. "He was behind the barricade."