"Beav" And "Vomet" Graffiti Trials Pushed Back

The attorney for two alleged graffiti vandals had their trials pushed back several months, arguing city lawyers have blocked him from reviewing the evidence they have against his clients.

Arguing Wednesday afternoon before Chief Judge Crystal A. Gaines in Atlanta Municipal Court, Atlanta attorney Daniel Kane said city officials have stymied and stonewalled his efforts to see affidavits, witness statements and video images of graffiti tags.

Kane's clients — Douglas Grantham Jones, 19, and Christopher Erik Smith, 29 — are charged with multiple counts of violating the city ordinance on graffiti abatement and destruction of property.

Jones uses the tag "Beav," police say, while Smith uses the tag "Vomet."

The two men, who face six months in jail and/or $1,000 fine per violation, have pled not guilty to the charges.

Jones, who was in court with his mother, is from northeast Atlanta. Smith also is from northeast Atlanta, but now lives in Virginia. He was not in court for the 3 p.m. proceedings, though Kane said he was en route.

Kane, whose high-profile clients have included Outkast's Big Boi and Goodie Mob's Khujo Goodie, told East Atlanta Patch his clients cannot mount a defense until they see the evidence against them. "We have nothing to base any plea bargaining or negotiations on," Kane said following the hearing.

"The state has failed to produce any discovery in the case of the city vs. Douglas Jones and Christopher Smith," Kane told the judge in arguing that both cases be pushed back.

He also said city solicitors have refused to order a police officer involved in the case to turn over evidence regarding an affidavit connected to search warrants.

"Apparently the officer will not produce the affidavit in support of the search warrants to the solicitor," Kane said, asking the judge to order the police release it.

Erika D. Smith, senior assistant solicitor arguing the case for the city, countered that Kane has had every opportunity to review the evidence her office has against his clients.

"We have responded to the discovery requests, she said. "We have not refused any discovery."

As for the affidavit, she said she doesn't have anything the police officer gave that she hasn't made available to Kane.

The judge told Kane she couldn't order the police to turn over the affidavit because she wasn't sure it even exists and advised that he file an open records request with the police to get it.

In the meantime, because the evidence against the two men are "voluminous," she agreed to have the trials pushed back to May 9 for Jones and June 6 for Smith so they and their attorney can have sufficient time to review them.

That didn't sit well with some 20 witnesses who came to testify against Jones and Smith, along with spectators who came to support those witnesses.

The "Beav" and "Vomet" tags, among others, are found all over Old Forth Ward, Inman Park, Poncey-Highland and Little Five Points.

"It's a tremendous problem because you have buildings that are historic and brick and can't be restored," said Matthew W. Garbett, president of Fourth Ward Neighbors, the community association that represents a portion of the neighborhood bounded by Freedom Parkway, DeKalb Avenue, Boulevard and the Southern Railroad line.

"They're doing indelible harm to these buildings," Garbett, one of the spectators said after the hearing.

It also hurts business development, he said. One reason cited by firms that look at Old Fourth Ward but then opt to open in other communities is the graffiti, he said.

Garbett added the opposition isn't to legitimate art such as commissioned murals and public art-on-walls projects.

"We're talking about tags like "Perv" and "Beav" and "Vomet" which are just infantile expressions of ego," Garbett said. "The community has to clean it up — we're covered in graffiti that costs us and the city money to repair and sometimes you can't repair it."