APP: A postponement was granted in the Lakewood Municipal Court case of Elchonon Zimmerman, the 43-year-old Lawrence Avenue man charged with simple assault of a teenager May 17. Lakewood court officials said Zimmerman’s lawyer, Darren Gelber, needed more time for discovery. The new court hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. Aug. 24, according to the court.Zimmerman’s case has caused a public conflict because it has divided many members of the black and Orthodox Jewish communities. The case began when the teenager, Jamarr Dickerson, cut through an alley on Lawrence Avenue, police say.Zimmerman told the youth he was on private property and tried to take the teen’s picture with his cell phone camera. A scuffle ensued and, when a patrolman arrived, he found Zimmerman kneeling on the youth’s back, authorities say.

Zimmerman was charged with simple assault, but the Ocean County-Lakewood branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has lobbied for bias crime charges to be filed because Dickerson told NAACP officials that several men surrounded the two and yelled racial slurs at Dickerson.

Lakewood police and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office both looked into the case but declined to press bias charges. Investigators say they cannot find any of the men who allegedly said racial slurs. Zimmerman was not accused of uttering any slurs.