[color="Blue"](Feininger? My jewdar is pegged.)

http://www.theoutlookonline.com/news/print_story.php?story_id=123501631534916500

Police: Teens admit to graffiti

Incidents apparently only meant as pranks [color="Blue"](when have you ever seen this?)

By Shannon Wells And Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Feb 18, 2009, Updated 1 minute ago

Detectives have arrested two suspects in a rash of Troutdale hate crimes involving a pair of churches, a cemetery and more than 30 other open graffiti- and vandalism-related cases. The two Troutdale residents admitted to applying graffiti in at least 50 locations in a month, according to police officials.

With assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Troutdale Police detectives arrested Troutdale resident Brendan Mackey, 18, at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18, as he left a tutoring session at a Stark Street restaurant, said Troutdale Police Sgt. Steve Bevens. An expelled Reynolds High School student, Mackey receives tutoring through Multnomah County-funded social services, Bevens explained.

The next day, at 9 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, officers arrested Timothy Charles Feininger, 18, also of Troutdale, on a tip that he would be meeting with a Reynolds High School student that morning. Officers spotted Feininger, also a former Reynolds student, near the school. After a brief chase on foot, Feininger was apprehended near the Imagination Station playground.

Both suspects are incarcerated at the Multnomah County Justice Center on multiple accusations of first-degree intimidation, first- and second-degree criminal mischief and 30 counts each of unlawful graffiti. Feininger also faces two allegations of second-degree burglary related to vandalism at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Cherry Park Road across from Reynolds High.

Bevens expressed amazement about how many open cases were linked by these two arrests.

“He just went on a rampage this month,” Bevens said of Mackey. “I’d venture to guess, on this arrest alone, we’ll be able to clear 40 (open) cases where officers were dispatched on vandalism calls.”

At 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 16, officers responded to a report of spray-painted swastikas, the letters KKK and expletive-laden slurs toward those of Jewish descent on the sides of Cherry Park Presbyterian Church at 348 S.W. Cherry Park Road. The graffiti also included gang markings.

An hour later, another vandalism report came in at Douglass Cemetery just south of the church at 1400 S.W. Hensley Road. Officers found gang graffiti spray-painted on outbuildings and anti-Semitic graffiti on a memorial rock engraved with a Star of David to mark the Jewish section of the cemetery. Only whoever vandalized the memorial rock was a poor speller and directed the graffiti toward “Jaws.” The same misspelling appeared on a brick wall at the Presbyterian Church. [color="Blue"](Could this be something like a backwards swastika?)

“I don’t know if they were just in a hurry or what,” said Pastor Tom Young.

Later in the night, police responded to yet another church vandalism, this time at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 1515 S.W. Cherry Park Road.

“This church has the worst damage by far,” Bevens said, adding that similar graffiti was spray-painted on the church’s exterior. “Everything comes back to the same suspects.”

Witnesses reported seeing a teenager writing on one of the cemetery’s outbuildings earlier Monday, Feb. 16.

Bevens credits help from other agencies and tips from the public with leading to the arrests. The FBI got involved, he added, because the incidents are considered hate crimes with the possibility the actions were group or gang related.

“We thank the FBI for their partnership,” he said. “They offered their assistance, and it was invaluable. We again could not have solved these cases without them.”

The investigation, which Bevens said police are wrapping up with the second arrest, indicates this was not a group or gang activity but limited to these two individuals.

“(Mackey’s) response was he thought this would be a really good prank,” he said. “It wasn’t targeted against any specific religion.”

The way all the open cases dovetailed into two arrests in quick succession proved a learning experience for the small police department, which was recently taken over by new Police Chief Scott Anderson.

He is in favor of creating a crime analysis position, Bevens said, so the department can more efficiently use data to its crime-solving advantage.

“This opened our eyes to our weaknesses,” Bevens noted. “We didn’t know we had 30 cases all linked together. We didn’t know that, and we’re small.”

Bevens asked that anyone with additional information about the hate crimes to call Troutdale Police at 503-823-3333.