LA Woman Sentenced for Vandalizing Federal Courthouse

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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Los Angeles woman was sentenced Monday to 30 days in jail and ordered to pay $8,250 in restitution for spray-painting graffiti on the front wall of the downtown federal courthouse three years ago during a rowdy street protest tied to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

Colleen Newton, 24, pleaded guilty in August to a class-A misdemeanor count of "depredation against government property" for spray-painting "BACON GETS FRIED," with the last word underlined, on the building's outside front wall during the July 25, 2020, protest, according to her plea agreement filed in the courthouse that was the target of the attack. The intent of the graffiti was to portray police officers as pigs.

Newton's federal public defense attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

Newton was captured on surveillance video defacing the front marble wall of the courthouse on First Street with red spray paint near the main entrance, according to court papers.

Demonstrators reportedly organized the protests in response to federal agents being sent to Portland, Oregon, to put down nightly protests that began following the May 25, 2020, killing of Floyd.

Several weeks after committing the courthouse vandalism, Newton was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department at another demonstration, for attempting to penetrate LAPD's skirmish line using an illegal shield, prosecutors said.

Reports also indicate that she spray painted a picture of a pig dressed as a police officer with a profane message on the wall adjacent to the tunnel on North Vignes Street in Los Angeles, court papers show.


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