Vandalism charges dropped

After almost two years of legal wrangling on a vandalism count stemming from his attempt to beautify city-owned trash cans, charges against itinerant artist James Moody (pictured) have been dropped.

Moody was cited on June 6, 2012, for painting three trash cans in downtown Chico, and at one point faced a felony vandalism charge and was ordered to pay about $2,000 to replace the refuse bins. A scheduling snafu by Butte County Superior Court led to Moody’s entanglement in a legal quagmire in which he was threatened with an arrest warrant while simultaneously blocked from dealing with the case (see “Outlaw art,” Newslines, April 11, 2013).

On Feb. 26, Moody reported the charges were dismissed in a video blog post on Without a Roof (www.woaroof.tumblr.com), a website dedicated to Chico’s homeless community. “It feels good to be free without something hanging over my shoulder,” Moody says in the video. “I did nothing wrong.”