Jury Finds 2 City Women Guilty Of Defacing Controversial Sign

Jury finds 2 city women guilty of defacing controversial sign

By SUSAN OPPAI 

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

In a courtroom overlooking the billboard at the center of the case, a District Court jury pronounced two Ann Arbor women guilty of defacing the controversial "Black Velvet” sign.

Jennifer Akfirat and Mary Jane Emanoil, both 21, were found guilty’on formal charges of malicious destruction by a six-person jury after a two-day trial. The jury deliberated for less than an hour.

They face a maximum 90 days in jail and/or $1,000 fine for the misdemeanor conviction. Sentencing was set for May 31.

The women were convicted of defacing the billboard at 205 N. Main St. during the early morning hours of March 7 by throwing black paint at it, and spray-painting it with the words “sexist” and “objects never, women forever.”

The sign, an advertisement for a Canadian whiskey, features a woman in a reclining position, wearing a revealing dress. Since the March 7 incident, the sign has been redone, vandalized again, and restored a second time but with a woman who is wearing more conservative attire.

The trial that started with a packed courtroom and distinctly festive atmosphere Thursday morning ended late Friday afternoon on a quiet note, in front of fewer than 15 spectators.

The verdict disappointed but did not surprise the defendants or their attorneys.

“It was a fair decision, based on what the jury saw in court.” said Akfirat. “They just didn't get to see the whole picture.”

Emanoil appeared more shaken by the verdict, but said “The decision was no surprise. I thought the trial was a joke.”

Defense attorneys for both women said they were disappointed.

“We were hoping for vindication,” said Stanley Pollack, who represented Akfirat. “The rulings made by the judge limited the defense we had planned to present,” said Emanoil’s attorney, Molly Reno.

At the end of Friday’s court session, 15th District Judge G .W. Alexander recognized the “deep and sincere feelings” of the spectators who had attended the court sessions. He thanked them for their “decorum and degree of courteousness. ’ ’

Akfirat and Emanoil were arrested about eight blocks from the sign in a car. Both women were splattered with paint identical in color to the paint that defaced the billboard.

Friday morning, Alexander overruled a number of motions Pollack and Reno made in an effort to dismiss the case. The lawyers argued that the sign violated the city’s sign ordinance, and therefore did not deserve protection under criminal statutes. The violation, they said, stemmed from a 1980 alteration that added an extra panel to the top of the sign and increased its size.

But Alexander threw that argument out. insisting that "a technical violation of an ordinance does not allow the kind of vigilante action” that took place.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Pollard criticized the defense lawyers’ have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too strategy.

First the defense claimed the women did not deface the sign. Pollard said. Then the lawyers argued that even if the women had painted the sign, it shouldn’t matter because the sign itself was illegal.

And, Pollard added, defense lawyers conceded the women might have been on the scene while the sign was defaced, but insisted that “mere presence at a crime while it is committed is not a criminal offense.”

But the paint on the women practically convicted the women, Pollard argued in her closing statement to the jury “because if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.”