By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Ismail Shakil
Aug 14 (Reuters) – A Kentucky woman has been taken into custody and charged with two felony counts in connection with the vandalism at the World War Two Memorial in Washington, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, said on Friday.
Pirro said on social media that Melissa Farris faces charges each carrying penalties of up to 10 years in prison.
The World War Two Memorial was vandalized with bubbly soap and graffiti on Thursday. The fountain bubbled over with suds and the words “Clean hands Dirty $” were painted on one surface, splattering the area with red and green paint.
In videos posted to her Facebook account, Farris records herself spray painting the memorial and asking why she has not been arrested. She describes herself on the social media platform as a “pirate captain” who is “panhandling for America.”
The criminal complaint filed on Friday quotes Farris as saying,
“Someone has to make choices that are different and I am accountable for my actions,” she said. “I am going to make these choices today and I will step foot into the courtroom and I will wait to be arrested …. Our government needs to be accountable for their choices too.”
In later videos posted after the incident, she appears disheveled and crying, saying she knows she upset people by her actions but was trying to get help for herself.
According to the complaint, a witness took a photo of Farris spray painting the memorial, an image that was circulated among U.S. Park Police.
An officer recognized Farris as someone they had arrested three days earlier for unlawfully camping on federal property a few blocks from the memorial.
Law enforcement found a white sign with painted letters in a nearby trash can. The paint on the sign appeared to match the paint used on the memorial.
Along with her statement on X, Pirro posted photos of a woman who appears to be Farris holding a can close to the red paint on the memorial.
In recent Facebook posts, Farris said she was planning the August 13 action to draw attention to U.S. tax dollars not being spent on ordinary Americans and to what she alleged were corporate racketeering, embezzlement and slave labor practices, among other issues. She had also contacted state and federal elected officials about her concerns, according to a person who knows her.
“She’s not crazy, not at all,” said the person, who asked to remain anonymous due the legal process surrounding Farris’ arrest. “She’s been trying to get attention.”
TRUMP CONDEMNS INCIDENT
U.S. attorney Pirro has recently drawn President Donald Trump’s anger for dropping charges against four people accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool after Trump oversaw renovations of the pool.
The pool’s condition soon deteriorated, with a peeling liner and algae blooms. When dropping the vandalism charges, Pirro blamed the deterioration on faulty installation.
Trump said in response that Pirro had “folded like an umbrella.”
Trump appeared to link the Reflecting Pool damage to the World War Two Memorial in a post on social media on Friday, calling it an insult to Americans who had died in the conflict.
“First the Reflecting Pool, now this,” he wrote. “We are on their trail! Where do these animals come from???”
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff; editing by Michelle Nichols and Sanjeev Miglani)
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