“It bothers me ’cause I’m trying to read a book,” Charlene Heckert, the patron who discovered the defacement and reported it to library authorities, said in the July 21 Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News.
Defacing public property is a class B misdemeanor in Utah punishable by a sentence of up to six months and a $1,000 fine. Noting that the library would probably only seek restitution, Davis County Librarian Pete Giacoma asserted that the crime “would be prosecuted if we were to find who did it, by luck or accident,” the Associated Press reported July 20. He went on to say, “I think the worry of the public, every once in a while, is that we’re doing it. We’re not.”
Giacoma urged patrons to “contact us and let us know” if they find any other unauthorized editing of library materials, the Morning News stated.
Posted July 23, 2004.