APP: The case of a private school teacher charged with simple assault of a teenager two months ago has drawn repeated cries from the local NAACP chapter that it should be treated as a bias crime. Now, the teacher agrees. In a tort-claim notice that is required before an individual sues a public entity, Elchanan Zimmerman, the teacher, alleges he was discriminated against because of his religious beliefs. Zimmerman is an Orthodox Jew; the teenager is black.The notice, filed with the township last month and obtained this week, is specifically against the Police Department and five officers. It alleges Zimmerman was arrested, charged and prosecuted without probable cause or a fair police investigation. He also alleges libel, slander and defamation.The claim is on behalf of Zimmerman and his wife and is for “injuries and damages which resulted from the arrest and detention.” Zimmerman’s attorney, Darren Gelber of Wilentz Goldman & Spitzer, Woodbridge, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The potential lawsuit is the latest twist in a case that has sparked community tensions and several investigations.

Many black residents said Zimmerman should have been charged with a bias crime, and many Orthodox Jews said Zimmerman was only protecting his property.

A bias allegation coming from Zimmerman was surprising to Warren A. Sherard, president of the Ocean County/Lakewood branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Sherard has lobbied for bias charges to be filed against Zimmerman, who he believes received preferential treatment because he is an Orthodox Jew. Police officials maintain all residents are treated the same.

“I’ve gone on record as stating there were many facets of the arrest of Mr. Zimmerman which, in our estimation, were preferential,” Sherard said Tuesday. “He was simply treated differently than people arrested in similar situations. So I agree there was bias � although I don’t think it’s the same kind of bias.”

The controversial case began May 17 when Jamarr Dickerson, a 15-year-old who lives in Coventry Square, cut through an alley on Lawrence Avenue, police have said.

Zimmerman, who lives on Lawrence Avenue, told Dickerson that he was on private property and tried to take the teen’s picture with a cell phone camera. A scuffle ensued, and when a patrolman arrived, he found the 43-year-old Zimmerman kneeling on Dickerson’s back, authorities say.

Zimmerman was charged with simple assault, but the NAACP called for bias crime charges to be filed because Dickerson told Sherard that several men who appeared to be Orthodox Jews surrounded him and Zimmerman and uttered racial slurs. A bias crime carries more severe penalties.

Several of the men mentioned that a black youth should not bein a predominantly Orthodox neighborhood, Dickerson told NAACP officials.

Lakewood police and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office investigated but declined to press bias charges. Investigators said they couldn’t find the men who used racial slurs, and because no one accused Zimmerman of saying them, authorities didn’t charge him.

A hearing on the simple assault charge against Zimmerman is scheduled for 1 p.m. Aug. 24 in Municipal Court.

Zimmerman’s tort claim, while short on details, claims religious discrimination. Since the incident, Orthodox community members have questioned why Zimmerman was made to take off his yarmulke, a traditional Jewish head covering, for police photographs.

Public Safety Director Al Peters would not discuss specifics but said he supports his department’s handling of the arrest and the investigation. He said he could not comment on the notice itself because he had not seen it.

“By all reports provided to me by this date, the Lakewood Police Department conducted its investigation thoroughly and impartially,” Peters said Monday.

Mayor Meir Lichtenstein, who has tried to defuse community tensions caused by the incident, said Tuesday he could not comment because of the potential litigation.

“Certainly, anybody has a right to file a claim,” Lichtenstein said. “We will have to let the system take its course.”