The 16-year-old Manlius teen who was arrested last summer after admitting his role in the Lakeland Park bathhouse graffiti incident has completed the punishments given to him by the Cazenovia court and, if he stays out of trouble for six months, the case will be dismissed and the fact of his arrest nullified from his record.
The teen, whose name will not be published because he is under age 18, turned himself in to village police and was arrested on Aug. 14 after admitting his role in spray painting the four-foot-long word “Loner” on the Lakeland Park bathhouse in early August. He was charged with the Class E felony charge of criminal mischief.
The teen appeared with his father and his attorney, Thomas Cerio, before Town Justice Timothy Moore on Wednesday, March 5. Cerio said his client had worked the 100 hours of community service and paid the $1,000 in restitution to the village of Cazenovia as required by the court.
Moore told the teen that if he stays out of trouble for the next six months, the fact that he was arrested will be “nullified.”
“It’s very important for you down the road; you can say you’ve never been arrested,” Moore said. “You’re very fortunate, very fortunate. Mr. Cerio did an excellent job, but you’ve earned it.”
Graffiti investigation stalled
While the Manlius teen admitted to perpetrating the bathhouse graffiti, there were still more than one dozen other graffiti incidents that occurred around the village last summer. Cazenovia Police Chief Michael Hayes said then he believed there were additional perpetrators still at large and the investigation continued. Hayes said Thursday that he remains convinced the Manlius teen did not act alone.
“I still believe there were other people involved that did not have the courage to come forward like this young gentleman did,” Hayes said.
Hayes said the investigation into last summer’s rash of graffiti incidents is currently closed, “but we’re still trying to be as vigilant as possible.”
Similarly, Cazenovia police have closed the investigation into the nine graffiti incidents that occurred during the early morning hours of Saturday Dec. 7 in the village after exhausting all leads in the case, Hayes said. Like the summer graffiti case, the December graffiti case is currently “closed, but active,” he said.
The Dec. 9 incidents included three large pieces in the “Wall Street” alley between Kinney Drugs and Café Latte Da, two on the Lindenfeld Law Firm office at 11 Lincklaen St., one on the side of the U.S. Post Office on Lincklaen Street, one on a U.S. Postal Service mail truck, one on the window of the old gas station next to the defunct Napa building on Albany Street and one on the stop sign at the corner of Center and Albany Streets. At the time of the incidents, Hayes said the perpetrators could be the same ones from the summer incidents.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
