Five Placed on Probation for Tagging Men Tei Japanese Noodle Cafe

Five vandals accused of spray painting vulgar words on the back of the Men Tei Japanese Noodle Cafe on 66 Hereford Street in November, were placed on six months probation after a hearing in Boston Municipal Court. They won't be returning to the neighborhood anytime soon.

All five were given a stay-away order from the Back Bay, with the exception that the female, who lives in Brookline and works as a bike messenger, is permitted to pass through on her way to work. All five were also given 20 hours of community service, or a $200 fine to be directed to the Graffiti NABBers - a Neighborhood Association of Back Bay committee committed to keeping the streets and buildings clean.

"These vandals came from all over the state to write vulgar graffiti in our neighborhood," said Graffiti NABBers chairwoman Anne Swanson, who made it a point to attend their hearing. "Astonishing."

The alleged taggers are: Dana Cataldo, 25, of Halifax, William Grady, 24, of Milford, Timothy O'Brien, 23, of Hanson, Patricia Nelson, 23, of Brookline, and Craig Shannon 23, of Plympton.

"...This was a very difficult case to prove because the vandals were not photographed doing the tagging (even though they were carrying cans of blue spray paint and had paint-stained hands) and it was not possible to pinpoint which individual wrote the graffiti," Swanson said. "Therefore it seemed fruitless to take it to trial..." 

The incident

Officers responded on Nov. 19 at 2:24 a.m. to a report of graffiti tagging in progress  at the Men Tei Japanese Noodle Cafe on Hereford Street. A witness who was looking out his window said he saw five people writing on buildings with blue spray paint and jumping on his car.

There were also tags written on the Boston Architectural College, and behind the 951 Boylston Street Fire Station. Boylston Street Firehouse. firehouse

After searching the area police found three people hiding behind a wall of the fire station, and two people on bicycles. One of them, Nelson, "looked at officers with wide eyes and fled on her bicycle out of the alley toward Boylston Street," and crashed her bike into a police cruiser as she was trying to evade officers, according to the report. Read the full story

NABBers mean business

Thanks to the swift action of the Graffiti NABBers, the obscenities were cleaned up before the paint had a chance to dry. The committee has removed nearly 10,000 tags from neighborhood buildings, Swanson said. In 2009, they supported the charges against well-known graffiti artist Shepard Fairey, who was arrested in February on his way to the premiere of his show at the Institute of Contemporary Art on two outstanding warrants related to tagging in the Back Bay.

He first became known for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" (…OBEY…) sticker campaign, and gained popularity during the 2008 presidential election through his  Barack Obama "Hope" poster.

"We were criticized to some extent," Swanson said of the Graffiti NABBers' support of his arrest. "But we were just defending our neighborhood."

With an annual spring cleanup around the corner, Swanson, and the committee, has fought hard to keep the Back Bay streets clean. The probation ruling against the five taggers was "kind of anticlimactic," she said.

But, justice was served.

"We made our point," she said. "And now we can move on with cleaning up the district."