New Jersey man convicted of harassing Bloomfield Township official

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP — A jury in Oakland County’s Sixth Circuit Court found Marc William Aisen, a 50-year-old from Hoboken, New Jersey, guilty of using a computer to commit a crime and unlawful posting of messages.

In July 2023, Aisen began emailing a Bloomfield Township official, making baseless child sexual exploitation accusations against a Boston-based Jewish organization, according to a press release from the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office.

When Aisen received no response, he sent emails to other officials and the official’s ex-wife. He also posted accusations of the official covering up abuse on public message boards.

On Oct. 9, 2023, Aisen emailed more than 100 recipients, including the official’s children’s school. In the emails, Aisen accused the official of covering up abuse and being affiliated with Hamas.

“False accusations of child abuse are among the oldest and most disgusting antisemitic tropes,” said Prosecutor Karen D. McDonald in a press release. “A jury unanimously concluded that Marc Aisen’s behavior was not free speech. It crossed the line into criminal harassment.”

Using a computer to commit a crime is punishable by up to four years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine. Unlawful posting of messages is punishable by up to two years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.

“I spoke with the Officer in Charge of the case and he has no additional comments,” Bloomfield Township Police Department Community Relations Officer Heather Glowacz said.

Aisen’s attorneys for the case are Scott Kozak and David Peters.

“This case is the most disturbing thing I’ve seen in 32 years of practicing law, and I was one of the attorneys who represented the pro-life grandmothers who were prosecuted by the Biden administration, the concentration camp survivors,” Peters said. “This case is worse than that. Marc Aisen’s rights were violated more than the peaceful abortion protesters’ were violated. He sent an email, he sent six emails, actually, to a government official. They weren’t threatening. They weren’t violent. They accused the government official of certain things, and he may not have liked it, but it wasn’t a threat, and there’s no way that this is a crime. We are going with the Court of Appeals, and we have every confidence that this is going to be overturned. If it’s not, the state of Michigan and the United States of America is in serious trouble, because they’re using old statutes to redefine, and then they’re applying the new terms and definitions to the statute.”

The prosecutor’s office was sent Peters’ statement to comment.

“For decades, those who would sow hate and incite violence believed ‘First Amendment’ were magic words that shielded them from the consequences of their actions. That’s not true. When speech crosses the line to threats and harassment, people like Marc Aisen must be held accountable, which is exactly what the jury concluded,” McDonald said in an emailed statement.

Kozak could not be reached for a comment.