Hanover Herald Progress - Ashland,VA,USA

Hanover judge sentences graffiti artist to 9 months
By HOLLY CLARK
H-P Associate Editor


July 22, 2004 -- A Virginia Commonwealth University art student was sentenced Tuesday to nine months in jail for painting graffiti on a Hanover building and the CSX railroad bridge over Interstate 295, just east of Route 301.
Michael E. Broth, 21, of Springfield, was arrested in April and charged with two counts of felony vandalism – the first for painting REFUSE SEEK in 10-foot tall white letters on the railroad trestle over I-295. The second charge involved a commercial building on Quarles Road.
The charges were reduced to misdemeanors Tuesday as a result of a plea agreement. In addition to the nine-month sentence, Broth was ordered to pay $7,060.43 to cover the costs of repainting the CSX bridge.
"Our whole goal in handling the case was to make sure there was a huge deterrent in handling future graffiti artists," said Hanover Commonwealth’s Attorney Kirby Porter. "By hitting him (Broth) with the restitution and jail time, we hope we’ve left a bad taste that will deter other people from doing this. This is a real crime and it has real economic consequences."

Arrested
Broth’s arrest came after extensive detective work by Investigator David Klisz of the Hanover Sheriff’s Office. Klisz, using evidence collected at the scene, was able to track the origin of the paint, the local distributor who sold it, and then determine who purchased it, Lt. Doug Goodman of the Hanover Sheriff’s Office said previously.
By analyzing the code on a paint lid recovered at the scene, Klisz identified the Home Depot store where the paint was purchased. He, along with a Home Depot accountant, then searched more than 2,500 pages of sales transactions and was able to zero in on Broth as the person who bought the paint.
Klisz also determined that Broth had been charged with defacing state property in November 2002. The city charge was dismissed in April 2003 after Broth completed 15 hours of community service.
Based on all of the evidence, Hanover investigators, assisted by the Richmond Police Department, immediately searched Broth’s Fan apartment.
During the search, investigators seized a list of 36 locations up and down the East Coast – from Northern Virginia to Miami – where Broth left his graffiti tag, police said. Broth’s list included the type of paint and wording he used in each instance, Goodman said.
The list included the two tags in Hanover, as well as several others around VCU and in downtown Richmond. Broth’s tags include RTBS (Refuse to be Smart), SMART, REFUSE and RTBS BANG.
Police said Broth used the first part of his graffiti nickname, REFUSE, in the message painted on the Hanover CSX railroad trestle. This was combined with a philosophical reference of his desire to SEEK a different path in life, Goodman said previously.
The REFUSE tag, along with additional graffiti pictures, is posted on Broth’s Web site titled livedaybyday.com, Goodman said. Broth also sold T-shirts emblazoned with the REFUSE logo via the Web site.

Sentencing
During Tuesday’s trial, Broth sat quietly, his dark eyes cast downward.
"I can’t explain it to the court," he told the judge in a hushed whisper. "It was a foolish and immature thing to do. I’m seeing a psychologist to help me find out why I did this."
"You need to grow up is what you need to do," said Circuit Court Judge John Rick Alderman, interrupting Broth’s statement. Alderman then sentenced Broth to 24 months in jail with 15 months suspended on both misdemeanor charges.
Broth, a senior fine-arts major at VCU and dean’s list student, was taken into custody immediately after Tuesday’s hearing. He will be eligible for school and work release.
Broth also faces charges in Richmond. The trial date for those cases is Aug. 10.