Two found guilty in Silent Sam toppling, two others dismissed

An Orange County judge has found two men guilty on misdemeanor charges related to the toppling of the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam at UNC Chapel Hill on Aug. 20, 2018.

Judge Lunsford Long ruled today that Raul Jimenez, 27, and Shawn Birchfield-Fin, 30, are guilty of injury to real property, defacing a monument and disorderly conduct. Long dismissed charges against two other defendants, Lauren Aucoin and Jonathan Fuller. A fifth defendant, Margarita Sitterson, will be tried separately, on May 9.

Long said the evidence presented in court established beyond a reasonable doubt that Birchfield-Fin and Jimenez were present at the event, that they demonstrated intent to topple the statue, assembled with two or more persons, and as a result injured real property. Long sentenced each defendant to 24 hours in the Orange County Jail, 250 hours of community service and a $500 fine in addition to court costs.

“There’s no place in a civilized society for citizens to take the law into their own hands,” Long said, echoing conservative lawmakers who decried the toppling of Silent Sam last fall. “That’s not the way our culture works. That’s not the way we evolved from the English common law. We have the rule of law, not the rule of people, and mob rule is destructive. That’s what happened here. They fed off of each other, and they did something a large part of society would never do. There have to be consequences for those actions — the damaged property, for the inflamed situation in our culture right now. This is part of it, not the cause of it, but it’s part of it.”

Read more: https://triad-city-beat.com/two-found-guilty-silent-sam-toppling-two-others-dismissed/