WICKER PARK — A middle-aged tagger from Cicero was charged with criminal defacement to property early Saturday after he allegedly marked the exterior door and inner vestibule of The Violet Hour with silver shoe polish, cops said.
David Reveles, 43, of the 3200 block of South Austin Blvd. in Cicero, was taken into police custody at 2:17 a.m. Saturday shortly after he exited the cocktail lounge at 1520 N. Damen Ave. and fled south. He was found by Shakespeare District cops at the corner of Le Moyne Street and Damen Avenue.
A bottle of shoe polish was at Reveles' feet, and fresh wet silver solvent on his black coat matched the markings at the lounge, said police spokesman John Mirabelli.
Mirabelli said the manager of The Violet Hour identified Reveles to Shakespeare District cops after he observed Reveles defacing the interior vestibule with six-inch high silver letters, using what turned out to be a bottle of silver shoe polish.
Reveles, who has no other criminal offenses on his record, was released on his own recognizance and faces a misdemeanor charge of criminal defacement to property and is scheduled to appear in Cook County Court- Branch 23 March 14.
Police said the arrest would not have occurred had The Violet Hour's manager not followed Reveles at a safe distance to Le Moyne Street, just south of the club, as the club's door manager called police.
The owner of The Violet Hour filed a criminal complaint against Reveles, a police source said.
Volunteer court advocate Joe Kopera said that while he's happy another tagger got caught, "signing a complaint is not enough."
Recently, Kopera went to court for the case of Jason Tobias, a 39-year-old costume shop worker arrested with two other taggers in front of Covo Gyros at 1482 N. Milwaukee Ave. just after the new year.
Since the owner of the building at 1482 N. Milwaukee Ave. did not show up in court, two of the three taggers with Tobias had their cases dismissed, and "the only reason [Tobias'] case wasn't dismissed was because he had a lawyer who wanted the case heard early and he accepted a plea deal to have the charges dropped in exchanged for 30 hours of community service," Kopera said.
