(RNS) — Practically three years after 5 protesters had been charged with felony vandalism for toppling and spray-painting a Junipero Serra statue in Northern California, the Marin County District Legal professional’s Workplace introduced on Thursday (Could 25) that the case had been resolved with fees diminished from felonies to misdemeanors.
Beneath the settlement, defendants should pay financial restitution to the church for the restore or alternative of the statue, full 50 hours of volunteer work, apologize in writing in an official court docket document, and take part in an upcoming group assembly with a historian to have interaction in “significant dialogue in regards to the subject.”
The defendants should additionally keep off the church property.
The 5 charged in Marin County Superior Courtroom had been: Ines Shiam Gardilcic, 40; Victoria Eva Montanopena, 29; Melissa Aguilar, 36; Mayorgi Nadeska Delgadillo, 36; and Moira Cribben Van de Walker, 25, in keeping with a information launch from the Marin County District Legal professional’s Workplace.
For the reason that toppling of the statue at Mission San Rafael Arcángel in San Rafael within the fall of 2020, greater than 80,000 have signed a petition urging District Legal professional Lori Frugoli to drop the costs in opposition to them.
The incident occurred throughout an illustration on Indigenous Individuals’s Day to protest the colonization of Native Individuals, in keeping with information experiences.
Photographs present the statue was knocked down and sprayed with purple paint.
Whereas Serra, an 18th-century Franciscan priest and Catholic saint, is credited with spreading the Catholic religion in what’s now California, critics say he was a part of an imperial conquest that enslaved Native Individuals.
The defendants, who’ve develop into generally known as the “Indigenous Peoples 5,” participated in a restorative justice course of whereas the case made its manner by means of the court docket system, the district lawyer’s workplace mentioned.
Marin County District Legal professional Lori E. Frugoli mentioned a decision got here after a “thorough case overview by prosecutors and an extended dialogue amongst church members, group members, authorized counsel for the defendants and the defendants’ participation within the Restorative Justice Course of.”
“Whereas this subject has raised feelings due to the sensitivities round faith, group boundaries, and historic inequities, the very fact is {that a} decision by means of accountability has been reached by means of restorative justice and that may be a victory for this group,” Frugoli mentioned within the information launch.
Not everybody agrees.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, in a letter on Could 24, mentioned he was “disturbed however not stunned” by the choice to scale back the costs in opposition to the 5 defendants.
“You’ve given the sign that assaults on Catholic homes of worship could proceed with out severe authorized consequence,” Cordileone mentioned within the letter addressing the district lawyer.
Cordileone applauded the felony fees in 2020 as a “breakthrough second for Catholics,” after urging the district lawyer to “press fees to the complete extent of the regulation.”
He additionally pressed for hate crime fees to be filed.
Now, Cordileone says the archdiocese was shut out through the restorative justice course of, including that the mediator within the case handled “the perpetrators as in the event that they had been the victims.”
“The purpose is, a felony crime was dedicated: The regulation doesn’t permit folks to trespass onto personal property and destroy it, all of the extra so when the personal property is a home of worship and the property being destroyed has sacred worth to the members of the congregation,” Cordileone mentioned.
The archbishop accused police of standing by when the statue was broken and claimed that the criticisms of Serra had been unfounded.
He additionally claimed {that a} written apology was inadequate.
“Acknowledging wrongdoing is step one in restorative justice,” he mentioned within the assertion. “A easy ‘I’m sorry’ falls pitifully wanting reparation for the hurt that was performed.”
All through 2020, protesters in California toppled Serra statues in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and in Sacramento. The general public scrutiny of Serra reemerged within the wake of Black Lives Matter protests denouncing institutional racism and police brutality and led to the toppling of monuments honoring Accomplice leaders.
Cordileone and Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez issued letters staunchly defending the picture and historical past of Serra and criticizing those that defaced the statues.
These responses galvanized Indigenous students who referred to as on the Catholic Church to totally admit to a historical past of colonialism that led to the lack of tradition and land among the many Native group.