As I was saying a couple of weeks ago, Ket, one of the graffiti „godfathers” pleaded guilty. He was ordered yesterday to pay a $5,000 penalty for subway vandalism, doesn’t rue his spray-paint-filled past.
„I do not regret it,” Alain (KET) Mariduena said after being sentenced for felony criminal mischief in Manhattan Supreme Court. „I grew up in Brooklyn in the ’80s. It was a tough time. We had a lot to deal with, including the crack epidemic. This was a positive thing. It gave me a sense of self-esteem.”
After proclaiming his innocence, Mariduena pleaded guilty recently to spray painting the sides of subway trains in Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn between 2004 and late last year.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Yates yesterday sentenced Mariduena, 36, to pay restitution to NYC Transit for vandalism in that borough. On Wednesday, a Queens judge ordered Mariduena to pay $4,274 in fines and restitution.
Tomorrow, the felony trifecta is completed in Brooklyn Supreme Court when a judge is scheduled to direct Mariduena to pay NYC Transit another $5,000 and do community service – helping a community group paint a mural.
Police have described Mariduena as „one of the godfathers of graffiti” because of his international reputation gained through his illicit work in the 1980s.
Dressed conservatively in a suit and tie yesterday, Mariduena, a pal of fashion designer Marc Ecko, said outside court he’s now publishing art books.
(Via NY Daily News)
