CLAYTON 鈥 The Florissant man charged with defacing a mural depicting famous African Americans on Washington University鈥檚 campus in 2021 has been sentenced to two years unsupervised probation for the crime.
Mitchell Frederick Wagner, of Florissant, was charged in March 2022 with felony first-degree property damage after surveillance video from Dec. 18, 2021, showed Wagner and three other people vandalizing a mural on the university鈥檚 South 40 Underpass, court documents said.
No one else was ever charged in the case, said Chris King, a spokesman for the St. 亚洲无码 County prosecuting attorney鈥檚 office.
University detectives said Wagner and members of a white supremacist group spray-painted the mural with the logo of the hate group that formed after the deadly 2017 鈥淯nite the Right鈥 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to court documents.
People are also reading…
Wagner pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, second-degree misdemeanor property damage, and was sentenced earlier this month to two years unsupervised probation. He also paid more than $8,000 in restitution, court documents said.
Wagner was arrested in Coeur d鈥橝lene, Idaho, about three months after his 2022 St. 亚洲无码 County charge was filed.
Coeur d鈥橝lene police Chief Lee White said 31 members of the group Patriot Front 鈥 which the Southern Poverty Law Center 鈥 appeared to have come to 鈥渞iot downtown,鈥 White said police were tipped off by a resident who saw a group of people enter a U-Haul truck in a hotel parking lot wearing masks and holding shields 鈥渓ike a little army.鈥
Police pulled over the truck and arrested the group, seizing riot gear and a smoke grenade. Kootenai County records showed Wagner was charged with misdemeanor criminal conspiracy along with 30 other people.
Wagner pleaded guilty in that case to an infraction in August 2023, according to online records. He paid about $450 in court fees.
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Patriot Front as an 鈥渋mage obsessed鈥 white nationalist group that 鈥渇ocuses on theatrical rhetoric and activism that can be easily distributed as propaganda for its chapters across the country.鈥 It was formed in the aftermath of the deadly 2017 鈥淯nite the Right鈥 riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, when it broke off from neo-Nazi group 鈥淰anguard America.鈥
The Washington University mural, called 鈥淭he Never-Ending Story,鈥 was created by six local artists before the start of fall 2020 classes.
Figures depicted on the mural include Annie Malone, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, actor and playwright Chadwick Boseman, and Robert L. Williams, a former Washington University professor who coined the term 鈥淓bonics.鈥