A federal judge on Monday ordered the release of a Kentucky woman who was accused of vandalizing the World War II Memorial in Washington last week, rejecting a request from prosecutors that she remain in custody while awaiting trial on two felony charges.
Federal prosecutors led by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, asked the court to reverse the decision, arguing that Melissa L. Farris posed an “exceptionally high risk of flight.”
In a motion filed Monday, prosecutors cited evidence that Ms. Farris, 41, had searched for bus and airline tickets on the day the incident took place, as well as her lack of stable housing or ties to Washington and a previous failure to appear in court.
Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh instead released Ms. Farris, though he ordered her to remain outside Washington, report to federal pretrial officials in Ohio and surrender her passport. She was also ordered to stay away from the memorial. The judge did not impose electronic monitoring or require a third-party custodian, restrictions that prosecutors later requested.
Ms. Farris, of Elizabethtown, Ky., was charged Friday with two federal felonies after investigators said she spray-painted “Clean Hands Dirty $” on the memorial and splattered paint on its stonework. Prosecutors said she also poured detergent into a fountain, causing it to fill with foam and bubbles.
The National Park Service estimated that cleanup and restoration costs had exceeded $1,000, and the memorial was closed for most of the day, according to the filing.
Ms. Farris livestreamed the incident and later posted videos in which she acknowledged that she had defaced federal property and predicted that the police would pursue her. The next morning, she turned herself in at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va.
Days earlier, Ms. Farris had been cited by U.S. Park Police for unlawfully camping on federal property a few blocks north of the World War II Memorial.
Earlier this month, President Trump publicly criticized Ms. Pirro, a key ally, over her handling of another case involving what he said was vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Mr. Trump said Ms. Pirro had “choked” after her office dropped charges against a man accused of damaging it. But Ms. Pirro concluded that the damage had been caused by faulty installation.
Hours after publicly criticizing Ms. Pirro, Mr. Trump met with her in the White House, though she was not fired and did not offer her resignation, according to two people briefed on the outcome.
The president has also denounced the vandalism of the World War II memorial, calling it an insult to Americans who died in the war. In a Truth Social post on Friday, he also linked the episode to the recent controversy over the Reflecting Pool.
In a social media post on the same day, Ms. Pirro wrote that defacing the memorial “is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom.” She also noted that the felony charges in the case carry potential punishment of up to 10 years in prison.
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