Graffiti Vandals

Law enforcement officials attending what they called a "graffiti vandalism summit" on Friday expressed strong support for a bill pending in the Legislature that would impose harsher penalties on those who repeatedly scrawl their graffiti--a crime that costs the county an estimated $42 million. "It's sorely needed," said Los Angeles Assistant City Atty. Martin Vranicar Jr., a gang unit supervisor and speaker at the gathering. "It will give law enforcement another tool. I think it's time."

For two dedicated members of the city's Pride Committee, the night of April 5 began much like many others: a midnight bicycle ride looking for evidence of graffiti and other crimes. Although previous outings had made the pair the target of curses, threats and even eggs hurled by vengeful graffiti vandals, what occurred in the early morning hours of April 6 was anything but routine.

A judge has ordered a graffiti vandal to pay more than $9,000 to his victims, including the city of Simi Valley. Nicholas Devos, 20, of Simi Valley was convicted in a series of tagging incidents through 1997. Judge Brian Back recently ordered Devos to spend three months in Ventura County Jail and pay more than $9,000 to the city of Simi Valley, the California Department of Transportation and a local business owner, all of whose property was damaged. Simi Valley will receive about $6,200.

Sheriff's deputies arrested five teenagers from Thousand Oaks and one from Northridge on Monday for allegedly scrawling graffiti on more than a dozen buildings in and around Thousand Oaks. The arrests came after deputies from the department's Special Enforcement Detail and Gang Unit said they connected the youths to vandalism at Redwood Intermediate School, Westlake Elementary School and a former Thousand Oaks city hall, a department spokesman said.

A San Fernando High School senior was convicted Monday of graffiti vandalism for the second time in less than two months for spray-painting the wall of a church, according to the city attorney's office. Omar Vargas, 18, pleaded no contest to one count of vandalism and was found in violation of his probation stemming from his first conviction on Feb. 11. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail and is forbidden to associate with other graffiti artists, or taggers, after his release.

I cannot believe that Renee Vogel refers to the vandals who despoil blank spaces as "artists" ("That Girl," So SoCal, Nov. 30). The scofflaws who besmirch the landscape by leaving their ugly scrawls cannot hope to equate themselves with the talented people who bring beauty into the world. Call them what they are: ignorant, untalented lawbreakers. They are graffiti vandals. Adelaide Tatto Pacoima

A teenage tagger painting over the name of a rival gang was killed early Monday after the gunmen who claim control of the area caught him and three friends in the act, police said. Hector Heredia, 19, of Santa Ana and three friends began spraying their monikers and gang initials in large black letters over walls, signs, windows and utility poles sometime before 4 a.m., when witnesses heard shots at Edinger Avenue and Center Street and called police.

In what is believed to be one of the stiffest penalties yet for a graffiti vandal in California, a 20-year-old Lakeside man was sentenced Wednesday to four years in jail and was ordered to pay restitution that could amount to $30,000. Kelly Gleghorn, a high school dropout who pleaded guilty to 74 misdemeanor counts of vandalism, bragged to police that he began his spree in Brawley about 2 1/2 years ago and worked his way toward the ocean spreading the tag "KELS" more than 1,000 times.

A 34-year-old sheriff's deputy was convicted Wednesday of opening fire on a group of graffiti vandals in the Antelope Valley last summer while off duty and then lying about it to his superiors. It took jurors a day to find Bobby Rodriguez, a nine-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department, guilty of assault with a firearm, gross negligent discharge of a firearm, shooting from a vehicle and filing a false report. Rodriguez faces up to 14 years in prison when he is sentenced Aug.

A sheriff's deputy was convicted Wednesday of opening fire on a group of graffiti vandals in the Antelope Valley last summer while off-duty and then lying about it to his superiors. It took jurors a day to find 34-year-old Bobby Rodriguez, a nine-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, guilty of assault with a firearm, gross negligent discharge of a firearm, shooting from a vehicle and filing a false report. Rodriguez faces up to 14 years in prison when he is sentenced Aug.