As we noted on June 12, vandals attacked the entrance to the Mansion House apartment building, 145 Hicks Street, home of Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak. “The front of the building was defaced with red paint, inverted red triangles were painted on the doors, and [there was] hung up a banner that said ‘Anne Pasternak Brooklyn Museum White-Supremacist Zionist.'”
Now, according to Mary Frost in The Eagle, a suspect has been arrested in connection with this alleged hate crime.
Taylor Pelton, 28, a resident of Astoria, Queens, was arrested and charged Wednesday, police told the Eagle. She was arraigned late Wednesday afternoon before Judge Dale Fong-Frederick in Brooklyn Criminal Court and charged with eight counts of ‘hate crime/criminal mischief property,’ according to court records.
She has “pled not guilty” and has been “released on non-monetary conditions.”
Update 8/6: The Daily News reports that a second person, videographer Samuel Seligson, has been arrested in connection with the vandalism and is “charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime.” The Daily News quotes Seligson’s lawyer, Leena Widdi, as calling the charges “an ‘appalling’ overreach since the videographer didn’t take part in the vandalism.” She said his action “is protected by the First Amendment and consistent with his job as a credentialed member of the press.”
