Police: Teens admit to graffiti

Incidents apparently only meant as pranks

By Shannon Wells And Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Feb 18, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (10 Reader comments)

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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.

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

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