BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
Mikalh Adams, 20, of Los Alamos has been charged in Los Alamos Magistrate Court with two counts of unauthorized graffiti over $1,000 each and one charge of battery and is slated to appear May 11 before Judge Catherine Taylor. Court documents allege the graffiti consisted of “anarchy symbols and a vulgar phrase”.
Los Alamos Police Department Cpl. Robert Desatoff responded April 8 to a report of someone painting an anarchy symbol with red spray paint on a concrete pillar on an elevated pedestrian walkway used by Los Alamos High School students. According to Court documents filed by Desatoff, the reporting party provided a description of the suspect’s direction of travel and photographed them leaving the area.
Desatoff said that he initially did not locate the graffiti, His report indicates that he found Adams and advised her that she was being detained on reasonable suspicion. When she placed the bag she was carrying on the ground, Desatoff said he could see two spray paint cans. Adams was detained “for officer safety” and the paint cans were seized as evidence. While speaking with Adams, Desatoff said she admitted to spray-painting an anarchy symbol on the concrete pillar.
On April 9, during his follow-up investigation related to the incident, Desatoff responded to the area of North Road and Quemazon with a Los Alamos County Streets Division employee to investigate additional graffiti and and a reported altercation that had occurred the previous evening, approximately 1 1/2 hours after Desatoff had detained Adams. Desatoff observed graffiti on rock faces along Quemazon Road, including an anarchy symbol spray-painted in black paint that was similar to the style and design to the symbol previously admitted to by Adams.
Desatoff was later dispatched to the LAPD lobby to meet with an individual reporting to an incident related to the same timeframe. That second reporting party stated that he had observed a younger individual spray-painting graffiti on the rock face, that he had exited his vehicle and ordered the person to stop but they continued spray painting.
The reporting party alleges that he slapped the spray paint can from Adams’s hand and then Adams punched him and kicked him in the torso. Desatoff’s report indicates that a brief physical altercation ensued where the reporting party defended himself and went on to take photos of the scene. The graffiti along the rock face next to the road read, “We are all rich and our c**ks are small,”, Desatoff’s report states.
Desatoff’s report indicates that “based on witness statements, photographic evidence, matching description, presence of spray paint, similarity in graffiti and Adams’s admission at the initial incident, he has probable cause to believe Adams “intentionally and maliciously defaced property” belonging to Los Alamos County without consent.