Posted on 07/15/2006 12:02:56 AM PDT by Ninian Dryhope
DENVER -- An Air Force officer with hundreds of hours of combat time pleaded guilty Friday to defacing cars with bumper stickers supporting President Bush.
Lt. Col. Alexis Fecteau, a decorated officer who flew 500 combat hours in the Gulf War, Kosovo and Bosnia, pleaded guilty to felony mischief and must pay restitution to the owners of the damaged cars.
Fecteau, 43, of Colorado Springs, declined comment after a brief hearing.
"This episode has had a very significant impact on his Air Force career," defense attorney Patrick Mulligan said.
Mulligan said the plea agreement "affords Lt. Col. Fecteau the opportunity to get back on track," noting his record will be cleared in two years if he stays out of trouble.
Fecteau originally faced 13 charges for defacing vehicles at the Denver airport between January and July 2005. Fecteau admitted to investigators he had vandalized cars starting around the time of the November 2004 election, but pleaded guilty to a single charge of criminal mischief that named all 13 victims.
Fecteau blacked out pro-Bush bumper stickers and then spray-painted an expletive over them.
After the charges became public, Fecteau was removed as director of operations for reserve forces at the National Security Space Institute at Peterson Air Force Base.
Please tell me this sick scumbag is no longer in the military.....
he got off a little easy, the probation should have been more like 4-5 years...
Tough Crowd
Silly but very tough
W
If he'd been doing this to rainbow stickers on cars he probably would of been charged with a federal hate crime and done some serious time behind bars. I'd say he got off pretty easy.
With the chip on his shoulder,why in hell is he in the military?
Different standards for different people, for the military this is truly startling, he can't be allowed to stay in a position of importance.
He has to be, at the least, placed back into the civilian population.
Obviously he was in the military before 2000. You shouldn't have to leave the military just because you disagree with your CinC, but you should be able to resist committing a crime because you do.
I'm sure the reverse was true, many time over, while Slick was being serviced in the Oval Office.
You know, this ticks me off.
Did the reporter write that first sentence so obtusely on purpose? He wrote, "pleaded guilty Friday to defacing cars with bumper stickers supporting President Bush."
I first thought he was PRO Bush, as in, he had defaced the cars USING bumper stickers supporting Bush. I didn't realize he was a moonbat until the last sentence - that he had TARGETED cars of Bush supporters.
I've seen cars defaced by people putting stickers on them and thought thats what they were talking about.
I know a Marine who is a Clinton lover and Bush Sr hater
I read that he poured paint thinner on the cars as well. Was that untrue or did the reporter leave that out accidently on purpose?
August 9, 2005
9NEWS Investigative Reporter Chip Yost says an Air Force officer has been arrested on charges of vandalizing cars that displayed pro President Bush bumper stickers. 5 p.m. August 9, 2005.
- Denver police say a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force has admitted to vandalizing cars bearing pro-President Bush bumper stickers at Denver International Airport.
Police say he's responsible for thousands of dollars in damage on at least 12 cars. Lt. Colonel Alexis Fecteau, 42, of Colorado Springs, turned himself in to Denver police Friday.
He is director of reserve operations at the National Security Space Institute in Colorado Springs, in charge of more than 40 full-time and traditional reservists.
In the arrest affidavit, Denver police say Fecteau admitted to damaging several cars after police conducted a sting-operation to catch the anti-Bush vandal.
"It was pretty good police work," said Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson. He said his department took this case very seriously. "You still have a right to express yourself in this country and you shouldn't have your car vandalized because of it."
Jackson said one of the detectives put out a bait car in late June, complete with a Bush/Cheney 2004 bumper sticker, in the west economy lot at DIA. On July 1st, with a security camera zoomed in to watch, an SUV drove by the bait car, and a short time later a man entered the scene. The man in the video appeared to spray paint something on the back of the car and then continued to do something on the side of the car.
When officers returned to the bait car, the bumper sticker had been painted over and the words "F--- Bush" were spray-painted on the side of the car.
Police used airport exit logs to trace the license plate of the SUV believed to be seen in the bait car surveillance video to Fecteau.
When Fecteau's SUV was spotted parked in the DIA lot on a subsequent visit, police impounded it. When Fecteau approached police about the whereabouts of his SUV, a DPD detective confronted him. Court records show that at that time, Fecteau admitted to the DIA vandalism and said he started damaging vehicles around "election time" last year.
The affidavit shows Fecteau told investigators he didn't mean the graffiti to be a threat against President Bush. He went on to admit he has scratched the same kind of graffiti into "a couple of cars" with his "keys and key holder."
Inside Fecteau's 2001 Ford Excursion, police found a bin full of products, including a tube of Park Tube Polylube, a grease used for bicycle repairs, a spray can of Klean Strip Auto Strip paint thinner, and Krylon Textured Shimmer paint.
Fecteau faces one count of felony criminal mischief and at least five other misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief. Fecteau has posted a $5,000 bond and is due back in court later this month.
Air Force spokesperson Major Tina Barber-Matthew told 9News in a phone interview Tuesday the service hasn't taken action against Fecteau in regards to the vandalism. Instead, Matthew said, the Air Force plans to allow due process through local law enforcement. Calls to Fecteau's work and home were not returned.
One of the vandalized cars belongs to Jeremy Kinney, owner of Kinney Oil Co. of Denver. Kinney is a long-time friend of President George W. Bush. The two attended Yale together in the 1960s and have remained friends ever since.
"You feel violated in a sense when something like this happens, but it was more disappointment than anger," said Kinney, who worked on both of George W. Bush's presidential campaigns.
Kinney had a "Bush for President" bumper sticker stuck on a tool-box located on his 1992 Ford truck. When he returned from a flight on June 19, he noticed the bumper sticker had been painted over and the words "F--- Bush" were painted on the side of the car.
It cost Kinney more than $250 to fix the damage. But, he said, there is a larger price to pay for this kind of vandalism.
"It just reinforced to me the lack of political discourse that takes place in this country, polite political discourse," Kinney said.
"There is so much anger in politics that I find it not only counter-productive but annoying and disappointing."
For your viewing pleasure, heeeerrrres the moron
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Your point is?
Does this person you know, go around damaging cars to prevent folks from expressing their political preferences?
I find it interesting -- that nearly all the situations of cars being defaced, involve Republican bumper stickers.
I'm sure we've all seen the Clinton/Gore and Kerry/Edwards stickers on cars for YEARS, without being defaced.
Here in Kalifornicate, there are lots of anti-Bush sticker which are quite vulgar or inflammatory -- it really points out just how vulgar and infantile the leftists have become...
I had my Bush/Cheney sign stolen from my yard, last election. Replaced it with a hand painted LARGE SIGN that said:
"A Kerry Nazi stole my sign"
That stirred this privileged Democrat neighborhood up a bit!
Semper Fi
Hackett of Ohio was one such traitor. He should have resigned from the military before he began his rant against his CinC.
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