Michael Anastasion's car on Jan. 13, 2018. Photo via Michael Anastasion.
A local artist has been found not guilty of a crime he was charged with after officers found him writing politically charged messages on his own car.
In January, Columbia Police Department officers detained and later arrested Michael Anastasion when they found him scrawling sentences such as “Fuck Your Privilege,” “Fuck Republicans” and “Black Lives Matter” on his car, which was parked in a prominent spot in Five Points during peak party hours. Accounts of some aspects of the arrest differ, but according to a police bodycam video viewed by Free Times, Anastasion also swore at officers.
Anastasion runs in an inner circle of Columbia artists. His paintings have been shown during Main Street’s First Thursday art crawl.
A judge ruled in favor of Anastasion on April 4, finding him not guilty of public disorderly conduct.
The verdict came after Columbia police failed to turn over evidence pertaining to Anastasion’s charge to his lawyer, Columbia attorney Neal Lourie. At the trial, Lourie made a motion to suppress all evidence due to CPD’s non-compliance, he says.
“When the city went to present any evidence, obviously they weren’t allowed to produce any because they hadn’t turned over any reports, videos, anything to us,” Lourie says.
Following the not-guilty verdict, Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook stood by the charge against Anastasion, and told Free Times he’s asked the City Attorney’s Office to explore increasing the role of city prosecutors and command staff for trials like Anastasion’s.
“Based upon my review of this matter, I believe we had sufficient probable cause to bring a criminal charge against [Anastasion] in this case,” Holbrook said in an emailed statement, “although I admit the case was not properly handled in municipal court. Whenever a highly respected and experienced lawyer makes a technical legal motion against a young unrepresented police officer, the people of Columbia are at a distinct disadvantage. This case is an example of our need to level the playing field in municipal court.”
After this story was first posted, Anastasion reached out to offer a comment as well.
"I'd rather they have released the body camera evidence and tried to prosecute me," Anastasion said Friday. "They didn't even bring it to court." He added that he plans to sue the police department for violating his First Amendment rights and for unlawful arrest.
Leading up to his day in court, Anastasion maintained that his actions were a spontaneous art protest meant to speak out against his own white privilege and white privilege broadly. First Amendment attorney Jay Bender told Free Times that writing on your own car is protected free speech and that while the artist’s interaction with police might have been profane and ill-advised, that was also protected.
"I would not have been arrested if I wrote 'USA USA, Go Gamecocks,'" Anastasion told WACH after his arrest.
But the First Amendment issues brought up might have to wait for another time.
“There were all kinds of issues on this case,” Lourie says. “I think it’s the end of it.”
