West Hartford Man Told Police Anti-Trump Graffiti At School Was Out Of 'Anger Toward Liberals'
Mikaela Porter
The West Hartford man who police said wrote profane and threatening anti-Trump graffiti at Morley Elementary School on June 15 has been ordered to stay off the property.
Hartford Community Court judge Tammy Geathers said Wednesday that Steven Marks, 32, is to stay off the Bretton Road school property and continued his case to Aug. 2.
Prosecutor Tom O'Brien said Marks has a clean record but asked the judge to continue the case so he could reach out to the Town of West Hartford and discuss restitution for the graffiti. He said Marks has arranged to meet with a social worker in West Hartford as well.
West Hartford Police on June 19 released a 28-second surveillance video clip showing a bald, white man wearing a dark blue Boston Red Sox t-shirt with khaki shorts riding a bicycle onto the Morley playground accompanied by a white and brown dog, identifying the man as the suspect. In the video clip, the suspect appears to write something on a sign located on the playground. The video was time stamped at about 10:30 p.m. on June 15.
Marks told police on June 19 he vandalized the property "out of 'anger towards liberals and they are breaking major laws everyday and being disrespectful towards our government,'" according to the warrant for his arrest. He told police it was his hope that the vandalism would appear to have been done by the "Left."
In the arrest warrant, West Hartford Police Officer Dante Ursini said Morley Elementary School Principal Ryan Cleary on June 16 said "students informed him that there were 'swear' words written on the playground equipment."
Some of the writings said "Kill Trump," "Left is the best," "Bernie Sanders 2020" and "Death to Trump" and were written on the playground welcome sign, a tan piece of of playground equipment, a yellow concrete barrier pole, a playground bench and on a "Little Free Library" located on the playground.
