I wouldn't be terribly surprised if Richard Dowling's statue ended up saving a whole lot of lives. Here's what happened now...
Andrew Cecil Schneck, 25, was charged with attempting to maliciously damage or destroy property receiving federal financial assistance, federal prosecutors announced.
A park ranger doing a routine patrol of the area around Hermann Park on Saturday caught Schneck kneeling in the bushes near the statue of Richard Dowling, a commander in the Confederate army.
The ranger "observed Schneck to be holding two small boxes with various items inside," including "what appeared to be duct tape and wires," a criminal complaint says. Schneck, who majored in chemistry at Austin College, was also found with a bottle containing liquid made up of compounds used as explosives.
When asked by the ranger whether he wanted to harm the Dowling statue, Schneck replied that he did not "like that guy," according to the criminal complaint.
This seems conventional enough in the current insane climate of leftist violence. But go back to 2013 and it gets stranger...
Federal officials on Monday remained silent on why they raided homes in Texas and Michigan this weekend that property records indicate are owned in part by a Houston art appraiser.
Dozens of agents, some wearing hazardous materials protective clothing, on Friday searched two homes in Houston and a condominium in Bryan, about 100 miles away. Agents on Friday, some donning protective clothing, also raided two properties in Michigan's Lower Peninsula: a home in the village of Suttons Bay and one in Leland Township.
Authorities in Houston on Saturday conducted two controlled detonations at one of the homes they raided. The FBI would not say was what detonated, only that it was a "potentially volatile substance."
Agents in Texas have finished their searches. IN an email Monday, FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap said she could not comment on the case as search warrants related to the investigation remain sealed.
Appraisal district records in Texas show the two Houston homes and the condominium in Bryan are owned either by Houston art appraiser Cecily E. Horton or by Horton and her husband, Andrew Schneck.
The "No Comment" policy continued for quite a while. And then there was a slip...
If not for a check written to the Sheriff's Office by a U.S. District Court in Houston, the outcome of FBI raids conducted 16 months ago may have remained a source of speculation in Leelanau County...
Leelanau County Sheriff Borkovich said last week that the individual involved could have been charged in state courts. "the problem was the indictments would have to be unsealed."
Borkovich said he had been asked by federal authorities not to divulge information about the case.
Special Agent Ron Loch led the operation. At a hastily called press conference that Friday evening, he said he was not authorized to elaborate on the content of sealed search warrants.
Those documents remain under seal, even after Schneck pleaded guilty and the case has been closed.
This is strange. And i suspect that locals dodged a serious bullet with consequences potentially far worse than a damaged statue.
Cecily Horton is a Dem donor. But not a particularly large one. At least in the FEC database. Still some questions need to be answered here.