Teenager Admits to Smashing Michael Grimm’s Window
With a New York Police Department spokesman saying a local teenager vandalized the Staten Island campaign headquarters of Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) on Sunday, at least one part of the mystery appears to have been solved.
First reported by the Associated Press, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said today that the teenager, an eighth-grader, has admitted to the act and that he is expected to be charged as a juvenile guilty of criminal mischief.
Still unclear, however, is whether Grimm’s campaign computer hard drive was hacked and cleared of sensitive information and data. A Grimm statement following Sunday’s incident asserted it had and that the vandalism – a chunk of cement and rocks thrown through two windows – was a cover-up for a political attack.
“This is a disgraceful act of cowardice that is beneath the people I represent,” Grimm said. “Even though this is not an official office, this heinous act represents an assault on democracy and the political process, more so than it does on me as a person or a candidate.”
Since then, though, the New York Times has reported that the police have found no evidence that the computers were broken into.
Multiple calls and emails to Grimm spokeswoman Carol Danko to follow up were not answered by publishing time. She told Roll Call on Monday that the staff was pleased with the NYPD’s handling of the case so far.
A different spokesman with the NYPD, meanwhile, would only say there was still “an ongoing investigation,” declining to comment on the veracity of the New York Times story.
It’s a strange twist for Grimm, elected in 2010 as part of the Republican wave that ousted the Democrats from their majority in the House.
Grimm’s appeal was not just his party stamp but his set of credentials: Marine, businessman, lawyer and former FBI agent.