Alexander Jerich already got two breaks. He should not get another.
Jerich is the 20-year-old child who used his truck to deface Delray Beach’s LGBTQ Pride streetscape painting. It happened on June 14, as Jerich participated in a birthday rally for Donald Trump that began at Delray Marketplace and went to the downtown intersection.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Jerich gunned his truck and intentionally skidded it. His vandalism left 15-foot tire marks on the streetscape that the city had dedicated two days earlier.
Jerich faces one felony charge of criminal mischief and one misdemeanor charge of reckless driving. Combined, the charges carry a maximum of six years in prison. But he could have been facing much more time.
Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg declined to charge Jerich with a hate crime. Aronberg also declined to charge Jerich under the state’s new “anti-riot” law, which prohibits damage to a monument.
Under Florida law, the hate-crime statute calls for enhanced charges. The standard applies when a defendant “evidences prejudice based on the race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, homeless status or advanced age of the victim.”
Anti-LGBTQ prejudice clearly motivated Jerich. Another driver in the parade called for him to “tear up that gay intersection.”
Aronberg, however, said the law requires “that the defendant select a specific victim based on sexual orientation.” Because the city owns the streetscape, Aronberg said in a statement, “the city is the named victim. Since a city has no sexual orientation, the state’s hate crime enhancement law cannot apply.”
Yet Delray Beach police investigators believed that Jerich committed a hate crime. Jerich, they wrote, “had reason to know or perceive” that Delray Beach “is an ally to the LGBTQ community” and “intentionally selected” the streetscape to vandalize “because of that perception or knowledge.”
If Aronberg had applied the hate-crime law, Jerich would not be facing a third-degree felony with a maximum sentence of five years. He would be facing a second-degree felony with a maximum of 15 years.
Rand Hoch is founder and former president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council. Hoch told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board that he is “not too thrilled” with Aronberg’s decision.
What if, Hoch said, someone painted swastikas on the window of a kosher meat market in Delray Beach? What if the vandal added anti-Semitic graffiti? There would be no “specific victim,” but wouldn’t that qualify as a hate crime?
Aronberg made a judgment call. He probably decided that the charges he filed were the charges on which he believed that he could secure a conviction. If that’s the case, Aronberg should be tough from here.
A plea conference is scheduled for Sept. 13. Last week’s hearing lasted three minutes. Jerich’s attorney says his client regrets his actions and wants to move on.
Not so fast.
Having lost the battle on enhanced charges, Hoch wants Jerich to do time. If that happens, he said, “Justice will have been done.”
We agree. The probable cause affidavit makes clear that Jerich is guilty. There’s video evidence. Jerich’s attorney essentially admitted that his client did it.
So while a conviction should not send Jerich to state prison, which means a sentence of more than one year, it should send him to the Palm Beach County Jail. Even if Aronberg did not believe that it qualified as a hate crime, defacing the streetscape was a statement against a segment of the population and a city seeking to make the right statement.
That’s not all. Any plea deal should require Jerich to pay for the damage he caused. The city estimates that it will cost $7,000 to repaint the streetscape. In addition, we also suggest that Jerich receive community service — perhaps for the Human Rights Council.
One might argue that Jerich is a gullible young man who made one stupid decision. In fact, you can’t separate Jerich’s crimes from what’s happening in the wider world.
This year, Florida passed a law banning transgender girls from competing in high school sports. Legislators offered no examples of harm to cisgender girls. The Florida High School Activities Association had a plan to deal with such circumstances.
Instead, the Legislature passed the bill, and Gov. DeSantis signed it. The goal was to stoke imagined grievance. Perhaps that grievance motivated Alexander Jerich.
Aronberg said the Legislature should expand the hate-crime statute to cover cases like Jerich’s. That’s unlikely to happen. Consider the other enhanced charge Aronberg didn’t file.
DeSantis and Republican legislators proposed the “anti-riot” bill after the George Floyd protests last summer and attacks on monuments to Confederate generals and statues of Christopher Columbus.
Yet the GOP hypocrisy showed when Republicans mostly went easy on those who blocked streets to protest for democracy in Cuba. We’ve heard no criticism from them of Jerich for defacing a monument that Hoch said commemorates the LGBTQ anti-discrimination movement since the Stonewall riots in New York 52 years ago.
Aronberg said Delray Beach was the victim. Actually, the victims were the LGBT community and all those who believe in tolerance. Let Jerich contemplate that behind bars.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee.The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com. 
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