Antigraffiti activists paint different story

Paul M. Anderson

MONTROSE -- The controversy over a whitewashed graffiti mural

memorializing two La Crescenta siblings killed in a car crash continued

brewing Thursday as an anti-graffiti group alleged that the artist is

still “tagging” the Montrose community.

“In my opinion, Jason Totty has not yet changed his spots,” said Peter

Rosenthal, a member of Volunteers in Pride, a group of residents who

paint over graffiti in the Montrose area.

Totty is the artist who conceived the mural in tribute to Christopher

and Allison Jagoe who died in an October car crash.

“Within the last two weeks we have erased new graffiti on the Lowell

Avenue off-ramp of the Foothill (210) Freeway, which is right around the

corner from Mr. Totty’s residence. And the same tag name he’s used for

the last two years is on it,” Rosenthal said.

Totty denied vandalizing the off-ramp.

“I’m too busy and too tired when I come home from work to do that,”

Totty said. “And I sure as hell wouldn’t do it right by my house.”

Sometimes some budding graffiti artists use someone else’s “tag” or

moniker because “they don’t know any better,” Totty said, laughing.

Totty, who makes a living painting houses and other construction work,

said he has changed his ways.

The La Crescenta resident was arrested Nov. 25, 1997, for malicious

mischief related to graffiti vandalism, said Glendale police Sgt. Rick

Young.

Totty was arrested again July 5, 1998, on two warrants issued in May

and June on graffiti-related vandalism, Young said. It was for an

incident on Feb. 19, 1998, at Colorado Street and Glendale Avenue, Young

said.

Totty freely admits his wrongdoing. “I’ve done 600 hours of

community service, served three weeks in County (jail) and paid $3,000 in

fines,” Totty said. “So I’ve paid my debt to society.”

Tim Jagoe, Christopher and Allison’s father, is aware of Totty’s

record but doesn’t care.

“If anyone was to look into my past they’d find things I’m not proud

of,” Jagoe said. “The Bible says, ‘Let the man with no sin cast the first

stone.’ And I’m not in any position to cast stones.”

Jagoe also doubted that Totty was responsible for the vandalism at the

Foothill Freeway. He said the evidence is largely circumstantial.

The controversy erupted when Volunteers in Pride objected to the mural

on the wall of the West Coast Video store, 2218 Honolulu Ave. The group’s

members pressured video store owner Karen Pedersen to remove the mural.

The group objected to the mural because Totty and the three other

artists who helped paint it signed their work with the name of their

“tagging crew,” Rosenthal said.

The group considered it a slap in the face to its members who have

spent years painting over graffiti in the neighborhood, Rosenthal said.

Bill Gorman, Mike Jacobson and Rob Ergenbright helped paint the mural,

Totty said.

“I signed it because I’m the guy who screwed up their businesses

before and it was to say, ‘Look what I’m doing -- Something good,’ ”

Totty said. “We signed it to let people know that these are the same

scoundrels who were doing stuff in 1993 but now we’re doing something

with meaning.”

The signature was meant as an olive branch to the anti-graffiti

volunteers, Totty said.

Totty and his friends plan to get a permit from the city of Glendale

to paint a permanent mural, hopefully on the same wall that was canvas

for the Jagoe memorial. It would be dedicated to Christopher and Allison

Jagoe, Totty said.

Tim Jagoe is excited about the project and has pledged to help in any

way he can. But he would like to see the theme of the mural expanded to

memorialize all of the young people “cut down in their prime,” he said.

The City Council tentatively approved a proposed law for murals in

September, said Glendale Neighborhood Services Administrator Sam Engel.

Council members are expected to vote on the proposed law in

mid-January, Engel said.

That law would set up a committee to review proposed murals, Engel

said. If that had been in place before the Jagoe memorial, some of the

controversy may have never erupted, he added.

“If we had been better able to communicate then most of these issues

would have been nonissues,” Engel said.

Volunteers in Pride regrets the pain the controversy caused the Jagoe

family and have sent Tim and Louisa Jagoe a letter apologizing, Rosenthal

said. But the letter also includes Totty’s arrest record, Jagoe said.

Rosenthal blasted the News-Press for its coverage of the issue.

“We felt it was so horribly one-sided journalism that we almost quit

our future efforts,” Rosenthal said. “However, our volunteers have voted

to go forward.”

The News-Press reached Rosenthal for comment on the Dec. 4 story about

the whitewashing of the mural, but he refused to say anything on the

record because he said he feared retaliation from graffiti artists.

Rosenthal offered his own olive branch to Totty, encouraging him to

join Volunteers in Pride and paint over graffiti.

Totty said he would be happy to if it would help pave the way for

another permanent mural.

But Rosenthal would only support a mural if it was not done in

graffiti style, a condition Totty and Jagoe seem unwilling to accept.

Totty said he grew up in La Crescenta and also wants to eradicate

graffiti in town. When he sees a vandal defacing a building, he pulls

them aside, Totty said.

“If they’re serious I take them to places where they can do graffiti

art,” legally, Totty said. “That’s my way of getting tagging out of the

community.”