by Sandra Miller
A notorious globe-trotting graffiti artist was arraigned last week in Boston and East Boston court, and will face several upcoming court cases for tags she allegedly placed on properties in Back Bay, East Boston, Quincy and New York City.
Danielle “Utah” Bremner, 26, is an infamous tagger known to police in Boston, East Boston, and Quincy, as well as Paris, London, Connecticut, Chicago, and New York, the latter where she is studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York. Her parents are a New York teacher and a retired police officer.
“She keeps finding herself in more and more trouble, but it appears that Utah is reaching the end of the line,” said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley. In the Back Bay case, many victims showed evidence of graffiti damage and cleanup costs to Boston Municipal Court (BMC), which listed 33 counts of 2007 tagging along Newbury Street and Commonwealth Avenue, and from Exeter to Gloucester streets in-between, as listed by Boston Police Detective Billy Kelley.
Damages to the Back Bay properties were priceless, because it was done to historic personal property. “It’s certainly a high dollar amount, conservatively estimated at six figures,” said Wark. “These are historic buildings in the Back Bay, hundreds of years old, that must be cleaned using historically appropriate techniques.”
“A crime such as vandalism and tagging is a property offense, and residents take it very personally. We respect and commend this. Our goal is to have the defendant pay for any expenses incurred during cleanup.”
Assistant District Attorney Patrick Driscoll asked for $10,000 bail, and presented the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) notebook of photo evidence to Judge Annette Ford.
However, Bremner's attorney argued that these were old charges linked to her Brighton charges, and asked for $2,500 cash bail or $25,000 in surety, saying Danielle's mother had brought $5,000.
A previous MBTA case in Brighton District Court was resolved in 2006, after Bremner admitted to the facts and paid restitution to avoid the case going to trial.
Those “were MBTA charges that had no relationship to the Back Bay charges,” said Anne Swanson, who leads NABB’s Graffiti NABBers team with Kathleen Alexander.
Judge Ford considered the evidence and promptly set bail at $10,000.
“This was very encouraging for our first court appearance,” said Swanson.
The next court dates are pretrial conferences on November 4 in Courtroom 11, and December 3 in Courtroom 18. No trial dates have been set. NABB is asking all witnesses and affected parties to come to the hearings to help in the case.
“The attorneys both need copies of our notebook of evidence to prepare for the trial,” said Swanson. “The judicial process takes a long time, and the selection of the judge who decides the case is pure chance, but we are optimistic.”
The day after the BMC hearing, Utah then appeared in East Boston Municipal Court for five counts of tagging done in 2005 in the Orient Heights train yard. The next court date is a status date, set for November 5. “There’s been some talk by the defense counsel to join the BMC case, but that’s a decision for a judge to make,” said Wark.
Charging Bremner in the Orient Heights vandalism took a while, since there was no evidence until, in a separate New York City case, detectives searched her mother’s house and found incriminating sketches and photos, said a spokesman from the district attorney’s office.
The attorney general’s office takes graffiti cases very seriously. “In the Back Bay, like any neighborhood in Boston, every resident has a right to a safe, clean neighborhood,” said Wark. “The defendant’s actions represent a physical deterioration of the quality of life for every visitor and resident in the Back Bay and any Boston neighborhood. Whether it’s public property like a playground, or a private property, like a residence, or a train yard, there is no reason to damage property and leave without paying for damages.”
Swanson, who has a degree in fine art, said graffiti “has nothing to do with art. It’s pure ego.”
Bremner was captured in August at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport after returning from backpacking across Europe with friends. She faces some combination of fines, jail time, and/or restitution “which is tricky when the city of Boston's Graffiti Busters do so much of the removal,” said Swanson.
9/16 edition:
Tagger 'UTAH' faces charges; bust is a major achievement for Nabbers, BPD by Sandra Miller
The Graffiti NABBers and Boston Police Detective Billy Kelley seeks the help of Back Bay property owners in their biggest graffiti bust to date.
Danielle Bremner, using the tag UTAH, will be brought from New York to Boston Municipal Court next week to face charges on a 45-count warrant sought by Detective Kelley, for tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to area buildings.
“It’s a big, hot graffiti case,” says Swanson, who is co-chair of the NABBers with Kathleen Alexander. This case is founded on photo documentation compiled by NABB’s Graffiti NABBers subcommittee.
“It would not have come to fruition if we had not assembled a notebook of evidence,” said Swanson, who maintains a thick photo album of Back Bay tags removed over the years.
Now NABB needs victims to come forward as witnesses.
“This arraignment is hugely important to us based on Bremner's worldwide graffiti vandal reputation and the fact that she victimized almost every Boston neighborhood,” says Anne Swanson, co-chair of NABBers. “Detective Kelley's coordination with police in New York has been critical in getting this accomplished.”
Swanson says Bremner is an example of hundreds of graffiti vandals who travel to urban centers all over the world to tag public and private property. “These individuals are linked to crews and networks of taggers who do a huge amount of damage collectively,” said NABBers’ press release. “These vandals are difficult to catch in the act, and when they are caught, we think they should be held accountable.”
In 2007 in Brighton District Court, Bremner from New York and her boyfriend from Toronto admitted tagging the MBTA 100 times, at an estimated removal cost of $47,000. Bremner's mother wrote a check for $8,000 and then said to Officer Kelley, "The problem is, you take graffiti too seriously in Boston." Officer Kelley replied, "Ma'am, look in the mirror--you are the problem."
While some see graffiti as just a nuisance, Swanson must convince them that it is a destructive crime. “Some of these property owners have spent up to $100,000 over 15 years repointing brickwork, and cleaning up after vandals. This is a significant cost to the city.” She actually had to convince a judge that graffiti and stickers on Back Bay property are not a protected form of expression.
“We seem to have legions of people who think it’s alright to leave a trail of stuff behind them, but it’s illegal to plaster stickers in public places,” said Swanson. “Some signage isn’t even legible anymore, it’s a safety issue.”
“We’re just trying to rally the troops,” said Swanson. “We want victims to write a statement if possible. We’re going in defense o
of the neighborhood. No neighborhood should be subjected to this sort of chronic vandalism. It’s absurd.”
Over the years, NABBers have removed thousands of tags. For the Graffiti NABBers, which has been recognized by the Boston Police as one of the city’s top 10 Crime Watch participants for 2008, it’s an unenviable job.
“It take a tremendous amount of time and labor -- We have to get permission from every property owner to remove a tag, and there are 10,000 property owners in the Back Bay. We’ve received almost 3,000 permission forms.”
“The commercial alleys were appalling,” she recalls. “We have removed thousands of tags. Today, if a half-dozen new ones go up, that’s unfortunate, but that’s progress.”
Participation in the court case includes a written statement, to be included in the NABBer notebook, and hopefully a court visit, at a time to be announced, and. To participate, contact Swanson at anneswanson@verizon.net.
List of properties specifically cited in the court case:
1. 12–14 Commonwealth Ave.
2. 74 Commonwealth Ave.
3. 110 Commonwealth Ave.
4. 160 Commonwealth Ave.
5. 264 Commonwealth Ave.
6. 279 Dartmouth St.
7. 26 Exeter St.
8. 30 Fairfield St.
9. 30 Gloucester St.
10. 11 Newbury St.
11. 29–31 Newbury St.
12. 83 Newbury St.
13. 91 Newbury St.
14. 93–95 Newbury St.
15. 99–101 Newbury St.
16. 103–105 Newbury St.
17. 111 Newbury St.
18. 115 Newbury St.
19. 119 Newbury St.
20. 121 Newbury St.
21. 123 Newbury St.
22. 127 Newbury St.
23. 137-145 Newbury St.
24. 159 Newbury St.
25. 161 Newbury St.
26. 171 Newbury St.
27. 175 Newbury St.
28. 179 Newbury St.
29. 205 Newbury St.
30. 207 Newbury St.
31. 253 Newbury St.
32. 265 Newbury St.
33. 271 Newbury St.
34. 297 Newbury St.
35. 327 Newbury St.
36. 331 Newbury St.
37. 339 Newbury St.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment