Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
Santa Barbara County District Attorney has charged two men in the Santa Ynez Valley for stealing and burning LGBTQ pride flags and sharing it on social media last summer.
Avi Stone Williams, 18, and Joshua Jerome Eligino, 19, have each been charged with two misdemeanor counts of petty theft and one misdemeanor count of a violation of Civil Rights.
According to the District Attorney’s complaint, the Civil Rights violation is described as the suspects unlawfully and knowingly defacing, damaging, and destroying personal property “for the purpose of intimidating and interfering with the free exercise and enjoyment of a right and privilege secured by the Constitution and laws of California and the Constitution and laws of the United States because of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender, and sexual orientation and because the defendant perceived that the victim had such characteristics.”
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office released details of their investigation into two thefts of Pride Flags in the Los Olivos area. On July 28, 2022, deputies responded to St. Mark’s in the Valley Episcopal Church in Los Olivos to investigate a report of the theft of a pride flag.
Deputies spent several days investigating the report including collecting physical evidence, interviewing victims and witnesses, and tracking down a video of the burning of a pride flag.
As a result of their efforts, deputies identified two young adult suspects in the theft who admitted to an additional theft of a pride flag in the Ballard area at a private residence, as well as the burning of one of the flags in a video they shared on social media.
A violation of Civil Rights is considered a “hate crime” under California law.
“The Sheriff’s Office takes these offenses seriously and the case has been submitted to the District Attorney’s Office requesting charges for 488PC – Petty Theft and 422.6(b) PC – Hate Crimes,” the Sheriff’s Office press release stated in 2022.
“In accordance with the Victims’ Bill of Rights, the District Attorney’s Office has met with the victims and members of the community and received input on how they have been impacted by these events,” the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office states.
Williams and Eligino are set to be arraigned in Department 9 in the Santa Maria courthouse on April 19, 2023.
Related Articles
August 1, 2022: Sheriff’s Deputies Investigated Thefts and Burning of Pride Flags
According to Instagram Avi Stone Williams attends Pepperdine. I wonder what the university thinks of their student committing a hate crime. Here is his account where he shows off photos of himself lifting weights… cool bro: https://www.instagram.com/asw_lifts/
And Joshua’s account is private, slightly smarter than Avi: https://www.instagram.com/joshua_eligino/
Pepperdine was begot as an evangelical Christian school. The original campus on Vermont was known for the Sunday evening “holy roller” services in the chapel. I don’t think Pepperdine is likely to object to the off campus “frolics” of their paying students.
Where are all those “tough on crime” con commenters now? What do you think COAST, BASIC, VOICE, SBLOCAL, BABY? Should we just let these thieves go?
Geez automatically guilty. Let them go thru due process. Probably hypocrites .
Well… they are guilty because they admitted doing it all to the Sheriff’s Office. Did you read the article?
The folks who want to treat this as a property crime would also treat a KKK cross burning on a minority family’s lawn as an illegal bonfire.
Is there such a thing as a straight pride flag?
VOR–yep, that’s what I said. Which are you?
Nope, it’s pretty accurate.
Sacjon, you’d have to ignore a lot, and I mean a lot, of information, quotes and video clips to believe that. Beyond delusional and propagandize, that’s straight up alternate universe level.
MEBK – No, just red hats.
@11:22a – Not all, but many. And if those who voted for Trump are not bigoted, racist, or homophobic, then it’s clearly not a dealbreaker for them to support a candidate and political party that are those things. No one is enjoying the descent of Red States as they stride closer to the Handmaid’s Tale, except for the bigots, racists, and homophobes.
Assuming that anyone who voted for Trump, (Red Hat) is a bigot , racist, or homophobe is so short sighted. Plenty of gays, people of color, women voted to save this country from the socialist directions in which we are now heading. Enjoy the descent.
VOICE – no. Biden isn’t a bigot, racist, misogynist, cheater, or ableist. It’s a lot different.
To say if you voted for Trump you’re either a horrible person or got suckered, then to go and vote for Biden and somehow think your different, you’re the sucker.
Say, szq, why did you post the same thing as yourself and anonymously? That defeats the purpose.
MERK -> MEBK (dust on my screen)
LOL 144.
If you support someone who uses racism and sexism and bigotry then you’re enabling those things.
Look, if you voted for Trump you’re either a horrible person or you got suckered. It’s one or the other.
I feel sort of bad for the people that got suckered, the others, well, I can’t wait to see them out rioting in the streets again when their cult leader is perp walked next week–ad of course he’s the one calling for death and destruction, yet again. How much blood does this guy really want on his hands?
It seems to me that crime and punishment today has less to do with the crime and more to do with who the criminal and the victim are. There is an increasingly popular trend to classify everyone and assign them a ranking of sorts based on how they are identified. Anyone who is assigned a low rank will face a stiff penalty for even the slightest offense against someone who is assigned a high rank. On the other hand, someone who is classified with a high rank can get away with a lot in committing offenses against someone with a low rank. A good rule of thumb to figure out where you fit into this ranking system compared to someone else is to consider a college admissions process. Assume you and the other person have identical academic qualifications and consider who would be given preference based on their identity. That person has the higher rank. It’s wise to be aware of how this system classifies you.
Chip – these two men stole and burned a symbolic object to instill fear and humiliation.
Chip, do you understand what a hate crime is?
“Assume you and the other person have identical academic qualifications and consider who would be given preference based on their identity.”
Rich people, people with connections, etc.
LGBQT are “very high rank?” LOL where? What system are you using? Oh poor little bigots are being punished because they’re “very low rank.” Dude, you’re bigotry is showing and it stinks.
They stole and destroyed someone’s property, period. They did so out of bigotry and hate. Ergo, this is a “bigger deal” than a normal petty theft. Racism, homophobia, all those things are HEINOUS and should be shamed in public accordingly. It’s not about ranking, it’s about being a compassionate human. You’re not one.
Sac, I believe the punishment would be worse depending on who is involved. If the same two men committed a similar offense against a victim who was classified with a ranking similar to their own, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Also, if two men who had a much higher ranking than these two individuals committed the same crime for the same reasons it wouldn’t have been a big deal. The reason for the severity of the punishment being sought in this instance is these two men are classified as a very low rank while the victims are classified with a very high rank.
So this is all involving “Pride Flags.” I have never understood how the word “pride” came to be co-opted to mean LGBTQ. Pride is defined as “a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements.” LGBTQ is a human state that just is what they were born with, not derived from any accomplishment. It is not something that they have accomplished any more that what “straight” people have accomplished by being born that way. Perhaps someone from the community can explain the logic about it, if there is any logic behind it.
10:46 – “It is not something that they have accomplished any more that what “straight” people have accomplished by being born that way.” – 1) They have accomplished equality (to some degree). I think that’s a pretty big accomplishment. 2) They don’t need to have “accomplished” anything. The “Pride” is the expression of being who they are without hiding in the shadows, risking beatings/murder/loss of employment, etc. That you can’t see why they should have pride in themselves is telling and sad.
Well, it was a serious and legitimate question from someone wanting to learn. Since the responses were simply being critical of the questioner apparently I should assume that you don’t have an answer.
“Gay Pride” is much like “Black is beautiful” … pushing back against a culture that holds being gay as something shameful and black as evil and unattractive. It’s not hard to understand by anyone who wants to.
@10:46am – this is something you could easily google and read up on. It’s not the LGBTQ+ community’s responsibility, or anyone else’s, to teach you. Take the initiative to learn more and be inclusive instead of posting anonymously on a comment thread riddled with homophobia because it seems like you’re adding to it.
“Well, it was a serious and legitimate question from someone wanting to learn.”
No it wasn’t … there wasn’t even a question mark. When people say “I’ve never understood X”, it’s a veiled to say “X is nonsense.”
BTW, if you have “a serious and legitimate question from someone wanting to learn”, why be anonymous?
*a veiled way to say*
So many homophobic and anti-LGBTQ comments. Really disappointing that people saying this stuff live in our community. Thanks Ed for deleting them.
So many self unaware bigots here. Sad.