Jeanine Pirro pushes hard to keep alleged memorial vandal in jail

Weeks after being rebuked by President Donald Trump for dropping cases related to alleged damage to the Reflecting Pool, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro is going to unusual lengths to try to keep behind bars a woman accused of vandalizing a memorial elsewhere on the National Mall.

On Monday, a magistrate judge in Washington ordered Melissa Farris, 41, released from custody, rejecting prosecutors' request that she be kept in jail while she awaits trial on two felony charges. Pirro's office alleges that the Kentucky woman spray-painted and dumped a foaming substance into the World War II memorial last week.

Pirro's lawyers asked Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh to delay Farris' release, but he declined to do so, according to court records.

Less than three hours after that hearing concluded, prosecutors from Pirro's office filed a 30-page appeal, asking Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to overrule the decision. The filing portrays Farris' alleged actions as grave and contends she poses an "exceptionally high risk of flight."

"This was a brazen attack on one of the Nation's most sacred monuments—an enduring symbol of freedom and a solemn tribute to the sacrifice of so many," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles Klug and Samuel Deau wrote in a brief that also carries Pirro's name in the signature block.

"Rather than honoring the courage and selflessness of the World War II Veterans, Defendant chose to assault that symbol of sacrifice for her own gain and to make a public spectacle," prosecutors added. "Defendant's actions are not just criminal, they violate the American values that the Memorial represents."

Pirro's tough stance in the vandalism case comes just weeks after she drew intense ire from Trump over her decision to drop the prosecution of former Olympian David Hearn, whom her office had accused of damaging the recently installed lining of the Reflecting Pool.

While prosecutors repeatedly referred to Farris livestreaming and soliciting donations as she spraypainted the memorial, they also acknowledge that when she turned herself in Friday at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, she said she was homeless and that an encounter with police in Washington earlier last week resulted in her being cited for stringing up her hammock in a public park.

The videos Farris streamed online contain rambling grievances against the federal government. Prosecutors say signs she appears to have left at the World War II memorial urged others to call their state and federal representatives about the "Ford green energy grant."

In one video, she makes a vague complaint about infrastructure, lowers her shorts and appears to urinate on a wall. "I'm pissing on your city," she says.

While most vandalism cases get little attention from U.S. attorneys, Pirro posted twice on social media about Farris' arrest. The prosecutor also said she was personally aggrieved by Farris' actions.

"Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather," Pirro wrote on X. She also noted that the felony charges in the case carry potential punishment "of up to ten years in prison."

While a conviction on such charges could theoretically result in a 10-year prison sentence, people convicted of defacing memorials typically get far shorter sentences. One man accused of spray painting the Lincoln Memorial during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 was initially hit with a felony charge, but eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

To continue to pursue the felony charges against Farris — depredation of federal property in excess of $1,000 and causing injury to a veterans' memorial — Pirro will need to get an indictment from a grand jury.

Following a hearing Monday, Sharbaugh ordered Farris released on her own recognizance, but ordered her to report to probation officers in Ohio and to stay away from Washington, including the memorial she's accused of vandalizing last week.

Prosecutors' appeal of the release order makes a fall-back request to Boasberg if he is unwilling to order Farris' detention: that she be put on electronic monitoring, such as an ankle bracelet that will indicate her location. However, the same prosecutors argue that she "cannot be reliably supervised" via that technology because she is currently homeless.