A 32-year-old New York man has been sentenced to one-and-one-third to four years in prison for stalking and threatening an Episcopal priest in what prosecutors described as an anti-LGBTQ hate crime.
Jacob Bender of Hyde Park was sentenced on May 12 following his conviction by a Dutchess County jury on April 13 on charges of felony first-degree criminal contempt, misdemeanor second-degree criminal contempt, and misdemeanor fourth-degree stalking as a hate crime. The victim, the Rev. Meredith Sanderson, rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, was targeted because of her church’s acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community.
According to trial evidence, Bender engaged in a course of threatening conduct between November and December 2024. Between November 10 and November 13, 2024, he sent emails to Sanderson with the subject line “repent,” causing her to fear for her physical safety. Bender’s grandparents are members of St. James Episcopal Church.
On December 6, 2024, in violation of an order of protection, Bender sent an email telling Sanderson she had no authority to preach the gospel and that she and her congregation would “burn in hell”. Five days later, he violated the protective order again by walking past her residence.
The jury deliberated for more than three hours after hearing two days of testimony before returning guilty verdicts on all charges.
Dutchess County District Attorney Anthony Parisi emphasized the seriousness of bias-motivated crimes in announcing the sentence. “Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of the defendant’s deliberate and escalating pattern of conduct, which demonstrated a complete disregard for the authority of the court, the safety of the victim, and the community,” Parisi said.
“When individuals are targeted because of their identity, their beliefs, or the communities they represent, the harm reaches well beyond the immediate victim—it threatens the sense of safety, dignity, and mutual respect that holds communities together,” he added.
St. James Episcopal Church, located on Albany Post Road in Hyde Park across from the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, was originally built in 1811 and is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The church has historic significance as the congregation attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and its cemetery contains the graves of FDR’s parents, James and Sarah Roosevelt.
The Rev. Meredith Kadet Sanderson began serving as rector in October 2025, according to her LinkedIn profile. Neither St. James Episcopal Church nor the Episcopal Diocese of New York appears to have issued public statements regarding the case as of our going to press. Anglican.Ink was unable to locate any official comment from Bishop Matthew Heyd of the Diocese of New York.