Graffiti arrest made

The suspect arrested on charges related to Capitol graffiti was the artist who planned rogue art exhibit in Lansing

Jeffrey Scott Handley. Holly Johnson/City Pulse

This story was updated Sept. 12.

Wednesday, Sept. 12 — The artist who planned a rogue art exhibit that was shut down by the city a week ago was arrested today on charges that he vandalized the Capitol building and a nearby memorial.

Lansing Community College police arrested Jeffrey Scott Handley this afternoon, a LCC spokeswoman confirmed. Handley, a Lansing resident, also goes by the name Geoph Aldora Espen. He faces one felony and two misdemeanor charges for what police believe to be his involvement with the vandalism, she said.

Handley planned the rogue art exhibition at the former School for the Blind property the night before he allegedly vandalized the Capitol grounds. The graffiti included the slogan "give art a chance" on the back of a war memorial and stick figures of a male and a female on two east-facing pillars of the building.

WILX-TV reported that the felony charge is for malicious destruction of tombs and memorials, while the two misdemeanor charges are for defacing public property. WILX also reported his first court date is Sept. 20. Handley said in an interview Wednesday night that he was released on a $7,500 bond, which was posted by a relative.

Handley, 20, planned a haunted art exhibit in the Abigail building at the former School for the Blind for Sept. 5, but city officials shut the event down before it happened because the building is owned by the Lansing Housing Commission Nonprofit Development Corp. and Handley did not have permission to be there. The graffiti at the Capitol was discovered the morning after the haunted art exhibit was scheduled to take place.

Handley denied last week in an interview with City Pulse that he was involved with the graffiti at the Capitol.

eufoe

@realitycheck It\'s incredibly personal when you vandalize a war memorial that honors people who fought against slavery, and for the freedoms to do things like this- throw comments at each other that are poorly-coded due to the broken captcha. But, anyway.\n\nWhat this idiot did was disrespectful. He revoked the title of artist as soon as he got upset over the power of his own stupidity. When you have an ego like that, the consequences are deadly. This kid\'s 20, not even legal to drink, and just sharted away his life. \n\nThis publication covered a lot of it, from beginning to end... rather obsessively. What this kid, as Ward said, is VANDALISM, not GRAFFITI. Can you get that right, City Pulse? You have decent graffiti in each direction down Michigan for your eyes. At Michigan and Larch, and at Harrison and Michigan. \n\nGiving some kid 5 hours of fame after they couldn\'t handle art school and life was just a bit whack, City Pulse. It was fun to play, though!

WARD

This is complete ignorance and stupidity.\nI\'d really appreciate if you didn\'t classify garbage like this as \'graffiti\' since it\'s clearly not an example of graffiti as an artform. It\'s straight up VANDALISM. Yes, there is a difference.

realitycheck

\nLinda164 ... ??? .... really??? How does a magazine writing an article about an event a guy chooses to host cause him to go out and spray paint the capitol building? It\\\'s his OWN fault. he\\\'s an adult. Not sure your connection to this guy, but it seems a little personal.\n

Linda164 ... ??? .... really??? How does a magazine writing an article about an event a guy chooses to host cause him to go out and spray paint the capitol building? It\'s his OWN fault. he\'s an adult. Not sure your connection to this guy, but it seems a little personal.

linda164

Ok, here\'s what riles me - this is maybe the third article you\'ve had on this guy and you must think that you are really cool goading him on and giving his immature self publicity, almost like a license to make a spectacle of himself. I understand personal responsibility, but when the \"free alternative rag\" in town is all over the Haunted Art Exhibit and maybe I\'ll mess up the Capitol and blah blah blah, well I hope you had FUN. Because right now, this 20 year old doesn\'t know what hit him and you were wrong to goad him on and make him feel like he was a big shot - I\'d understand it if you were clueless 20 year olds yourselves - are you? Shame on you, City Pulse for being a willing participant in misguiding someone who seems to have had no moral compass and sense of respect. Good job! Ironic that the first word of your captcha is \"hypocrisy\" because you are all about that.\n

\nLinda164 ... ??? .... really??? How does a magazine writing an article about an event a guy chooses to host cause him to go out and spray paint the capitol building? It\'s his OWN fault. he\'s an adult. Not sure your connection to this guy, but it seems a little personal.\n

Graffiti arrest made

The suspect arrested on charges related to Capitol graffiti was the artist who planned rogue art exhibit in Lansing

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