Ex-Acton Councilman Fined for Sign Protest

The former president of the Acton Town Council was fined and ordered to perform community service Friday for allegedly helping remove hundreds of real estate signs as an anti-development protest. The judge postponed sentencing of a current council member.

Joel Levy, 54, the council’s president since 1989, was fined $1,175, ordered to perform 50 days of community service, pay restitution up to $800, and placed on three years probation. Levy pleaded no contest last month to one misdemeanor vandalism count involving one sign.

However, Lancaster Superior Court Judge Charles Peven postponed until Dec. 13 sentencing for Acton Town Council member Charles Brink, 51, who pleaded no contest to the same charge and who is the main figure in the case. Brink maintained that hundreds of signs advertising houses for sale violated county sign-placement ordinances. He said he tore them down because the county would not.

Brink’s attorney, calling him the victim of a “vendetta” by authorities, requested the delay after the prosecutor said she intends to show that Brink has continued to remove signs and vandalize construction machinery. The prosecutor called Brink a remorseless vigilante who deserves a maximum one-year jail sentence.