A grand jury will try two Virginia Tech students for stealing the Moog Components’ Hokie Bird statue last December.
The charges of grand larceny and felony destruction of property are held against Matthew Alan Hanson, a building construction major, and Michael Scott Russell, a communication major, whose case will be tried in April.
Blacksburg Police reports recounted that on Dec. 3, 2006, the two students were arrested after stealing the Hokie Bird statue located in front of Moog Components Group at 1213 North Main Street and moving it to an apartment on the same block of North Main.
The “Motion Technology for Sea, Land, Air and Space” statue was originally painted with scenes of the company's products. Artist Phil Stevens designed it after being purchased as part of the Blacksburg Partnership public program, Gobble de Art project, for $7,500.
Stevens said the damage to the bird was extensive.
“The feet had been broken off and there were at least 15 other spots that had to be redone,” Stevens said. “It looked as if someone had tackled it.”
Blacksburg Partnership’s Diane Akers added that this was not the first vandalism of a Hokie Bird in the Blacksburg area.
“We haven’t really been involved with this vandalism case because it occurred after (the birds) had been distributed to their owners,” Akers said. “But I believe its already been restored.”
Stevens confirmed that the bird, which had been outside the company’s office since Oct. 2006, has since been repaired and will be re-located to the inside of the Moog building.
Now, however, the repercussions of the vandalism act have to be handled.
Hanson and Russell appeared in Montgomery County General District Court last Thursday, Feb. 22, where a judge addressed the charges and motioned for the charges of grand larceny and felony destruction of property to be heard by a grand jury.
In addition to those charges, both of the men were initially charged with obstruction of justice, and Russell was charged with underage possession of alcohol, of which the obstruction of justice claim was dismissed. Russell was ordered to attend classes in a youth-offender program, and the charge was taken under advisement for one year, after which, if he does not receive any other alcohol charges, the possession will be dropped.
“We have no comment on the situation and that’s been our position from the beginning,” said Cindy White, the marketing manager for Moog. “It is really a police matter and now a matter of the courts.”