An Alexandria General District Court judge on Monday found a Nebraska professor guilty of vandalizing the home of NRA Chief Lobbyist Chris Cox in Alexandria, Va.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Patricia Wonch Hill, who pleaded not guilty to the charge of misdemeanor destruction of property, must pay a thousand-dollar fine and was ordered to stay 500 feet away from the Cox’s residence.
The act of vandalism occurred in January 2018. According to witnesses, Professor Hill sprayed fake blood on Cox’s home. During the criminal trial, Cox’s legal team also presented surveillance video from the home that allegedly shows Hill committing the crime.
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Hill was also served with a warrant after court for another alleged act of vandalism on the same residence. Elizabeth Locke, Cox’s family attorney, says this incident happened in October 2017.
Locke gave a statement to The Daily Caller, saying: “We are pleased that today Ms. Hill was criminally convicted of vandalism for her January attack on the Cox’s home, that she was charged with a second count of vandalism for an attack on the Cox family home in October 2017, and that a restraining order was entered against her. The Cox family is grateful to the Commonwealth Attorney’s office and the Alexandria Police Department for their role in holding Ms. Hill accountable for her criminal conduct. We look forward a second conviction for Ms. Hill at her next criminal trial.”
The vandalism, in both cases, was accompanied by a series of protests and confrontations in front of the Cox’s home and outside of his wife’s interior design business. Protesters handed out flyers, created posters and created an anti-Cox website.
The protests were spearheaded by “The Great America Gun Melt,” which has a stated mission “to destroy the gun industry”.
After the trial, The Daily Caller asked Hill to give her reaction to Judge Donald M. Haddock’s decision, this is what she had to say:
TheDC also caught up with Melody Vaccaro, vice president of Nebraskans Against Gun Violence, who was in court in support of Hill. This is what she had to say before she was pulled away by one of Hill’s attorneys:
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There will be a separate trial for the October vandalism charge, the date is TBA.
