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Yes, really: Florida couple faces felony charges for defacing Parkland memorial while drunk
Yes, really: Florida couple faces felony charges for defacing Parkland memorial while drunk
Everybody knows that the couple that drinks together, and defaces memorials to dead children together, stays together, right? As the Sun Sentinel reports, one loving pair spent their Sunday evening in Parkland, at the site of February’s tragic school shooting.
Vodka and pro-gun sentiments may have spurred a couple into vandalizing the mass shooting memorial at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to police reports.
Michael Shawn Kennedy, 37, of Hollywood, and Kara O’Neil, 40, of Fulton, N.Y., were arrested late Sunday on suspicion of removing or disfiguring a tomb or a monument, a felony offense.
As he was being arrested, Kennedy said, “I ripped down the anti-gun banner because I am pro-gun,” according to a deputy’s report.
The tokens of love and mourning were part of a tribute at the school to the 17 students and staffers killed and the 17 injured in Parkland on Feb. 14.
When confronted by deputies about the trove of mementos in his backseat, Kennedy, the self-proclaimed Second Amendment enthusiast, claimed that he and O’Neil were bringing the items TO the high school, rather than taking them—and O’Neil claimed the same. Both insisted that they were planning to build their own memorial to the 17 lives lost in Nikolas Cruz’s six-minute massacre.
Problem was, it was painfully obvious that they were full of it.
[…] deputies didn’t believe the couple and wrote that the items were inscribed and clearly marked and were placed at the site by other people, and not O’Neil or Kennedy.
The items that were allegedly stolen — including the banner; three bears; a Parkland 2017 basketball trophy for first place; framed poems; lawn ornaments; a red stone with the phrase “Never Again” on it and American flags — were found in the back seat of the Cadillac, according to reports and photographs released by the sheriff’s office.
A shadowbox held a picture of each person who was murdered, an image of an eagle with its head down that represented the school’s mascot, and a border of tiny silver angels...(it was) inscribed, “Dedicated to MSD, from Pompano Beach High School NHS.”
Don’t mean to judge a book by its cover, but these two don’t look like they’re in the National Honor Society of ANY high school.
Did I mention the half-empty bottle of vodka that police found iced down in the passenger seat? That’s right, they kept that liquid courage cold. Strangely, police reports don’t indicate that Kennedy or O’Neil face additional charges for open-container violations or DUI, or even a citation for the expired license plates on their Cadillac.
In court on Monday, Kennedy represented himself, and tried to have the case dismissed.
Kennedy, who is unemployed, spoke on his own behalf, telling Broward County Judge Kim Theresa Mollica, “I feel the charging document has insufficient facia elements…it is neither a tomb nor a monument.”
Mollica looked up the state statute and disagreed with Kennedy, saying the law also protected a memorial for the dead or burial artifacts.
O’Neil appeared in court on Tuesday. Both remain in jailpending trial, on a paltry bond of $1,000 each.
Now that the March For Our Lives has come and gone, the Parkland community has a volunteer-driven preservation of the memorial scheduled for this week, as the hot and humid South Florida weather begins to take its toll on the tribute items, many of which will be archived and kept, possibly in a museum.
Yes, really: Florida couple faces felony charges for defacing Parkland memorial while drunk
Everybody knows that the couple that drinks together, and defaces memorials to dead children together, stays together, right? As the Sun Sentinel reports, one loving pair spent their Sunday evening in Parkland, at the site of February’s tragic school shooting.
Vodka and pro-gun sentiments may have spurred a couple into vandalizing the mass shooting memorial at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to police reports.
Michael Shawn Kennedy, 37, of Hollywood, and Kara O’Neil, 40, of Fulton, N.Y., were arrested late Sunday on suspicion of removing or disfiguring a tomb or a monument, a felony offense.
As he was being arrested, Kennedy said, “I ripped down the anti-gun banner because I am pro-gun,” according to a deputy’s report.
The tokens of love and mourning were part of a tribute at the school to the 17 students and staffers killed and the 17 injured in Parkland on Feb. 14.
When confronted by deputies about the trove of mementos in his backseat, Kennedy, the self-proclaimed Second Amendment enthusiast, claimed that he and O’Neil were bringing the items TO the high school, rather than taking them—and O’Neil claimed the same. Both insisted that they were planning to build their own memorial to the 17 lives lost in Nikolas Cruz’s six-minute massacre.
Problem was, it was painfully obvious that they were full of it.
[…] deputies didn’t believe the couple and wrote that the items were inscribed and clearly marked and were placed at the site by other people, and not O’Neil or Kennedy.
The items that were allegedly stolen — including the banner; three bears; a Parkland 2017 basketball trophy for first place; framed poems; lawn ornaments; a red stone with the phrase “Never Again” on it and American flags — were found in the back seat of the Cadillac, according to reports and photographs released by the sheriff’s office.
A shadowbox held a picture of each person who was murdered, an image of an eagle with its head down that represented the school’s mascot, and a border of tiny silver angels...(it was) inscribed, “Dedicated to MSD, from Pompano Beach High School NHS.”
Don’t mean to judge a book by its cover, but these two don’t look like they’re in the National Honor Society of ANY high school.
Did I mention the half-empty bottle of vodka that police found iced down in the passenger seat? That’s right, they kept that liquid courage cold. Strangely, police reports don’t indicate that Kennedy or O’Neil face additional charges for open-container violations or DUI, or even a citation for the expired license plates on their Cadillac.
In court on Monday, Kennedy represented himself, and tried to have the case dismissed.
Kennedy, who is unemployed, spoke on his own behalf, telling Broward County Judge Kim Theresa Mollica, “I feel the charging document has insufficient facia elements…it is neither a tomb nor a monument.”
Mollica looked up the state statute and disagreed with Kennedy, saying the law also protected a memorial for the dead or burial artifacts.
O’Neil appeared in court on Tuesday. Both remain in jailpending trial, on a paltry bond of $1,000 each.
Now that the March For Our Lives has come and gone, the Parkland community has a volunteer-driven preservation of the memorial scheduled for this week, as the hot and humid South Florida weather begins to take its toll on the tribute items, many of which will be archived and kept, possibly in a museum.
