August 13, 2011

Red Rock vandal sentenced

Teen gets prison in Red Rock graffiti case

By Jeff GermanThe desecration last year of prehistoric artwork at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area sparked outrage and focused attention on the spread of graffiti throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

This week, the 17-year-old youth charged with defacing the Red Rock area received his punishment behind closed doors in federal court, ending a case that rallied the community to help remove the spray-painted graffiti.

U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson on Wednesday sentenced the unidentified youth to nine months behind bars, which he already has served. The judge also placed him on nine months of supervised release and ordered him to pay $23,775 in restitution to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The defaced rock art panels on Aztec sandstone slabs and walls contain pictographs, painted symbols, the BLM estimates are 1,000 years old. One slab has a petroglyph, stone etching, that might be older.
Comment:  A nine-month sentence he's already served? A couple of years would be more like it.

For more on rock art, see "Not Cool" to Deface Rock Art and Rock Art = 3rd-Grade Doodling? For more on Red Rock Canyon, see 2010 Christmas Pix.

Below:  "Wyatt Mulvey, a volunteer with Friends of Red Rock Canyon, sprays water May 19 to restore an ancient rock art site near Lost Creek that was damaged by graffiti vandals in November." (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review/Journal)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I lived most of my life in Las Vegas, and loved crawling around in the caves and formations out in the desert. Over the decades, I've seen a lot of wonderful, secret pockets of petroglyphs defaced and stolen. It was always sad to return and find them damaged or gone, and whole areas trashed by jerks partying out there.