Graffiti Suspects Confess To Crimes; Court Can't Prosecute

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Story Published: May 17, 2007 at 5:31 PM PST

By Aaron Kellogg

YAKIMA -- First a teenager tags your home with graffiti and then he confesses to the crime. Many people think the vandal would up in trouble with the law, when in reality, he most likely gets off because prosecutors don't think they have enough evidence to bring a case against him.

The Police Chief in Toppenish has 22 cases he wants to take to court. In some of those cases, the suspects even confessed to the vandalism and even showed police which buildings they tagged. The courts rejected the cases before and said he didn't have enough evidence.

We investigated and found Police have a huge burden -- they practically need to catch vandals in the act to get them into a courthouse.

The rules aren't about to change either. State laws determine how much evidence a prosecutor must have before he takes a case to court. Right now, those laws don't appear to be in question.

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