Suspect In Somerville Flag Urination Turns Himself In: Report

SOMERVILLE, MA – A man accused of urinating on American flags at the Somerville Veterans Memorial Cemetery has turned himself in, according to Boston 25's Courtney Spinelli. Michael Lacey, 31, faces charges of willful defacement of a monument, American flag or veteran's grave marker, open and gross lewdness and disturbing the peace.

Lacey has a listed address in Boston and an address in Cambridge where he has been known to stay, according to documents filed in Somerville District Court. The woman pictured with Lacey, who is not being charged, told police she had recently met him on the OkCupid dating website and they hung out for the third time on Monday, Sept. 10.

According to the police report, the woman said she and Lacey spent some of the day drinking wine at her apartment before walking to the St. Paul Cemetery in Arlington and drinking wine again in a quiet wooded area.

On their way home they went into the Veterans Memorial Cemetery, where Lacey allegedly ripped the flags at the front of a memorial out of the ground and threw them between the statue and the wall. She said Lacey made "some type of anti-government comment," the report stated.

Lacey then said he had to go to the bathroom and walked to the area where he had thrown the flags, according to the report. The woman turned and walked toward the sidewalk as he started urinating and saw a man yelling as he approached them, she told police.

The woman told police she did not know Lacey well but had conversations with him "regarding his outlook on political views and his dislike for American government policies and the current president," according to the report.

George Gatteny, an Arlington resident who said he witnessed the urination, told the Boston Globe the woman "didn't do anything." Gatteny posted photos of the pair and the flags to Facebook, as well as an account of what he saw, and reported it to police.

The cemetery contains remains of soldiers killed in World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars and the 1982 Beirut bombing, according to Somerville Veterans' Services. In a statement posted to its Facebook page, the agency called the incident an "abominable act."

"If these allegations are true, they are offensive not only to our community and our own veterans, but to our entire nation and those who served and continue to serve," Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said in a previous statement. "Following the full investigation by the Somerville Police Department, I am confident that anyone who may be found guilty will be held fully responsible for these despicable actions."

Image via city of Somerville