Thread: Woman on expired visa charged with defacing Nat'l Cathedral, possibly Linc. Mem too

Fox News (AP)
Woman found with can of green paint may have defaced Lincoln Memorial, prosecutors say
July 30, 2013

WASHINGTON – A woman charged with defacing the Washington National Cathedral had a soda can of green paint with her when she was arrested, and she has been linked to at least four other incidents of vandalism, including at the Lincoln Memorial, according to prosecutors and court documents.


Jia M. Tian, 58, appeared alongside a Mandarin translator on Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court, where a judge ordered her held pending a hearing later this week. Police had previously identified her as Jiamei Tian.


Tian was arrested Monday at the cathedral, where she is accused of using green paint to deface an organ and decorative woodwork in two separate chapels. She's been charged with destroying private property, a crime that carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.


The cathedral has said the damage to its chapels, including to a gilded wood altarpiece, will cost thousands of dollars to fix.


Authorities believe the green paint vandalism was part of a pattern of similar acts. Green paint was discovered splattered onto the Lincoln Memorial early Friday morning, and symbols were later found painted in green on a statue outside the Smithsonian headquarters on the National Mall.


The woman, who has a Chinese passport, arrived in Washington a few days ago and was traveling on an expired visa, prosecutors said. Police said she had no fixed address but that she told officers she lived in Los Angeles. She refused to give her phone number, email address or home address, police said, and a language barrier complicated initial efforts to interview her.


Prosecutors asked the judge to keep Tian locked up, calling her a flight risk and a danger to the community. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Chambers said there was no way to guarantee her presence at future court appearances without jailing her.


"While that danger to the community is not violent, it is nonetheless serious," he said.
Tian was arrested inside the cathedral's Children's Chapel on Monday afternoon, shortly after the still-wet green paint was discovered there. When a police officer approached her, she walked away and placed the soda can with green paint inside one of three bags that were sitting on chairs in the chapel, documents show. She also had green paint on her clothing, shoes and body, authorities say.


She was wearing a multicolored sock on her right arm, and a similar sock was found in a trash can in a bathroom at the cathedral on top of a can of green paint, according to the documents. The bags placed in the chapel also had cans of green paint in them, police said.


Tian is also suspected of vandalizing a statue of Martin Luther on Thomas Circle in downtown Washington, which was also hit with green paint, prosecutors say.


Following her arrest, a witness contacted police and reported that the woman had been seen attending a service at a church less than a block from Thomas Circle, according to court documents. The witness reported that the woman was carrying three bags with her. After she left, the witness found that a pipe organ in the church had been splattered with white paint, urine and feces, police say.


D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Tuesday on a news talk show on NewsChannel 8 that the incidents all appear to be connected. She said Tian has potential "mental health issues" and it's still not clear what inspired the vandalism.


"What the motive is for the incidents, we don't really know," she said. "I guess that will all start to unfold as we go through the courts."


A lawyer for Tian argued that her client could be appropriately dealt with by immigration authorities instead of going to jail, but Chambers disagreed.


"We have her here now," he said. "We want her to answer for these alleged offenses."
Cleanup crews have been working for the past few days to remove the paint from the Lincoln Memorial. An estimated $15,000 in repair work has already begun at the Episcopal cathedral, which serves as the nation's spiritual home and has hosted state funerals and inaugural prayer services.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/30...est=latestnews

Expired Visa equals illegal immigrant!

W

We all saw this coming. When I first read of it I bet that it would be an illegal alien.

My first tip was the language barrier and no address when she was arrested.
http://www.alipac.us/f9/non-englsh-s...ed-nat-284648/

added to our homepage with an improved title...


Communist Chinese Illegal Immigrant With Expired Visa Flies Into DC and Defaces US National Monuments!

http://www.alipac.us/content.php?r=2...onal-Monuments!

Woman charged with vandalism had can with green paint

Wednesday - 7/31/2013, 12:17pm ET



Green paint is seen on the organ inside the Bethlehem Chapel, the oldest section of the National Cathedral Monday. (Courtesy National Cathedral)

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Cleanup continues at Cathedral

WASHINGTON - A woman charged with defacing the Washington National Cathedral was carrying what appeared to be a soda can containing green paint when she was arrested, and she has been linked to at least four other incidents of vandalism, including at the Lincoln Memorial, according to prosecutors and court documents.

Jiamei Tian, 58, appeared in D.C. Superior Court Tuesday alongside a Mandarin translator.

The woman was arrested Monday at the cathedral, where she is accused of using green paint to deface an organ and decorative woodwork in two separate chapels.

She's been charged with defacing and destroying private property. A judge on Tuesday ordered her held without bond.

Authorities believe the green paint vandalism was part of a pattern of similar acts.

Green paint was discovered splattered onto the Lincoln Memorial early Friday morning, and it was also reported Friday on a statue of Joseph Henry -- the Smithsonian's first secretary -- outside the Smithsonian headquarters on the National Mall.

The woman, who has a Chinese passport, arrived in Washington a few days ago and was traveling on an expired visa, prosecutors said. Police said she had no fixed address but that she told officers she lived in Los Angeles.

According to court documents, the woman is also suspected of vandalizing a statue of Martin Luther on Thomas Circle in downtown Washington, which was also hit with green paint.

Following her arrest, a witness contacted police and reported that a person matching the woman's description had been seen attending a service at a church less than a block from Thomas Circle, according to court documents.

The witness reported that the woman was carrying three bags with her. After she left, the witness found that a pipe organ in the church had been splattered with white paint, urine and feces, documents show.

Tian was arrested inside the cathedral's Children's Chapel on Monday afternoon, shortly after the still-wet green paint was discovered there. When a police officer approached her, she walked away and placed the can with green paint inside one of three bags that were sitting on chairs in the chapel, documents show.

She also had green paint on her clothing, shoes and body, according to the documents.

She was wearing a multicolored sock on her right arm, and a similar sock was found in a trash can in a bathroom at the cathedral on top of a can of green paint, according to the documents.

The bags placed in the chapel also had paint cans in them, the documents show.

The paint clean-up continues

Efforts to remove green paint from two chapels inside the National Cathedral continued Tuesday. Gold Leaf Studios had finished most of the cleanup of the paint that damaged Children's Chapel.

As work on that chapel continues, so does the cleanup of the Bethlehem Chapel.
"The technicians are cleaning the paint that was thrown on the organ. It splattered the keys, the wood-paneled walls, the pipe casings and a bit on the floor," said National Cathedral spokesman Richard Weinberg.

Cleanup of both chapels should be finished Wednesday. Both will remain closed while the work is done.

The cost for the cleanup will run $15,000, said Weinberg, who called the vandalism "heartbreaking."

"This is an unfortunate act of vandalism that adds to the cathedral's financial needs," Weinberg said.

A music department employee discovered the damage about 2 p.m. Monday.
Weinberg says Tian, the woman charged, "deserves our prayers."

Efforts to question Tian about the other acts of vandalism, including at the Lincoln Memorial, have been complicated by a language barrier, The Associated Press reported.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier told NewsChannel 8 that it looks like the vandalism at the National Cathedral may be related to the other vandalism incidents.

"Right now we are trying to see if they are connected; they certainly appear to be," Lanier says. "If the same person is responsible and what the motive is for the incidents ... we don't really know."

Crews continue to work on cleanup at the Lincoln Memorial.

"The paint is a little more stubborn than we expected it to be," says Carol Johnson, spokeswoman for the National Park Service.

Workers can't break out brillo pads and start scrubbing on Honest Abe's statue. The 91-ton historic icon is made of white Georgia marble that U.S. Park Service conservationists will treat with great care.

"We don't want to start with something casuistic, we're trying to be as gentle as possible with this," says Johnson.

Officials are using pressure washers Wednesday to remove a water-based gel cleanser that's been allowed to soak on the paint stains for at least 24 hours.

"It's going to take several days, several applications and perhaps several products," Johnson says.

A Park Service architectural preservationist is working with and consulting with the National Cathedral and Smithsonian Institution in the effort to appropriately clean other locations vandalized with paint, Johnson says.

Charging Documents for green paint vandalism suspect

http://www.wtop.com/41/3404543/Woman-charged-with-vandalism-had-can-with-green-paint

D.C. green paint suspect released to halfway house

The alleged Washington paint splasher sits in jail while police try and connect her to the vandalism spree at three other landmarks, including the Lincoln Memorial.
USATODAY 6:23 p.m. EDT August 2, 2013

Police say shoe tread of Chinese national who overstayed visa matched print found at Lincoln Memorial vandalism.


Green paint was splashed on the pipe organ of the historic Bethlehem Chapel in the lower level of Washington National Cathedral.(Photo: Washington National Cathedral)

A 58-year-old Chinese national accused of defacing Washington National Cathedral with green paint has been released to a halfway house, where she will be electronically monitored.

At a court appearance Friday, a District of Columbia judge ordered that Jiamei Tian, whom authorities said had overstayed her tourist visa and had no fixed address, must also not leave the facility or have visitors. She was arrested Monday and charged with defacing two chapels in the cathedral.

STORY: Woman arrested in paint vandalism at D.C. cathedral

Police suspect that Tian is also connected to similar vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial, a Smithsonian statue on the National Mall, another Washington church and a statue of theologian Martin Luther. Prosecutors had said she arrived in Washington shortly before the vandalism.

At Friday's preliminary hearing, a detective testified that the tread from one of the shoes she was wearing matched a paint footprint found early July 26 at the Lincoln Memorial, The Washington Post reported.

STORY: Vandalism suspect queried on Lincoln Memorial damage

One visitor reported finding two 20-ounce Mountain Dew bottles full of green and white paint, plus white footprints near the memorial's Gettysburg Address inscription. Police said that when Tian was arrested inside the cathedral she had a soda can containing similar green paint.

The National Park Service said Thursday that the cleanup was nearly finished. Work cleaning and restoring an organ and altar piece damaged in the Bethlehem and Children's chapels at the National Cathedral is continuing.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/02/vandalism-green-paint-cathedral-lincoln-memorial/2613587/