A SAES and Mole tag from William Street looking south down the Ann Arbor Railroad tracks.
Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com
A 16-year-old Pioneer High School student was ordered in court Tuesday to spend six months on probation and pay $13,591 in restitution for spray-painting his moniker 'Mole' throughout Ann Arbor.
The restitution in 10 of the 11 counts the teen admitted responsibility to last month will be shared with the 15-year-old Ann Arbor boy accused of being behind the SAES tags.
The 16-year-old, who appeared in court with his mother, also admitted responsibility to two additional counts of property destruction before Washtenaw County Juvenile Court Referee Julia Owdziej Tuesday. The two additional counts alleged the teen used a marker to scrawl "Mole" on a University of Michigan container in the 1500 block of South State Street and a U-M building in the 900 block of South University Avenue.
The incidents occurred between November 2012 and April 2013, Owdziej said.
The teen admitted responsibility -- the equivalent of a guilty plea -- to a count of malicious destruction of property causing between $1,000 to $20,000 in damage and a count of malicious destruction of a building causing between $200 and $1,000.
Owdziej offered the boy deferred sentencing on the two new counts, as well.
Both cases were disposed after the plea. The boy will be on probation until at least Dec. 19, when a hearing was scheduled in juvenile court. If he complies with all the requirements of probation, the cases will be expunged from his record because of deferred sentencing.
Owdziej also ordered the boy to pay $13,591 in restitution for the 11 counts. The restitution in the two additional counts will be determined within 60 days. The teen will share $13,338 of the restitution with the SAES tagger.
The boy's mother said her family will do their best to make timely payments.
"We're going to do everything we can to get it done," she said.
If codefendant SAES pays half of the restitution, then the other teen will only have to pay half. If either teen fails to meet their financial obligations, the other teen will be on the hook for it.
The teen received glowing reports from the probation department in court Tuesday. A representative from the department said the 16-year-old had been "exceptional" under court supervision.
The teen also was ordered to perform 40 hours of community service and write separate letters of apology to each victim in the cases.
The 15-year-old Ann Arbor boy already charged with 16 counts of property destruction for allegedly spray painting his moniker SAES throughout the city was recently released from the youth home and will appear in court later this month.
John Counts covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at johncounts@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.