Joel Brown has the deets on the ICA fave and his ongoing lawsuit with Associated Press over that Hope photo:

... In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images. ...

Shepard Fairey pleaded guilty today to three counts of defacing property and walked out of Boston Municipal Court with two years' of probation, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports, adding 11 other defacement charges were dismissed.

Fairey admitted he plastered his wares in 2000 in Brighton and, in advance of his ICA show, in Back Bay and Fort Point Channel earlier this year.

In addition to probation, Fairey must pay $2,000 to a local company that cleans up graffiti, "make a statement of apology to residents and deterrence to other potential offenders" and not walk around Suffolk County with any of the "tools of the trade," the DA's office said.

In response, Fairey's PR person issued a press release that said nothing apologetic, but did say Fairey is "very pleased to have the Boston case behind him" and indicated this would not be the last we'd see of public displays of posters that build on the work of other artists:

As an artist with a traveling exhibition surveying two decades of his work, which includes many examples of public art and the iconic Obama "Hope" poster, Shepard believes that it is important for artists everywhere to have access to public spaces to display their work, but do so in a respectful manner.

Dueling press releases:

Suffolk County DA's office says there's not enough evidence that Fairey plastered his own work across greater Roxbury (OK, areas covered by Roxbury District Court), but left open 13 more charges involving allegedly illegal posters in Brighton (where police allegedly caught him paste-handed back in 2000) and in downtownish areas.

During the day, Adam Foss works as an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, where one of his cases is arch-wheatpaster Shepard Fairey.

Big Red and Shiny reports that, at night, Foss monlights as a bartender at the new Tory Row in Harvard Square, where Fairey's work hangs in prominent positions on the walls.

A Boston Municipal Court judge ruled today that when Fairey is arraigned tomorrow on a series of vandalism charges, ten of the counts will be brought as felonies, rather than misdemeanors, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

The ruling means that Fairey could now face jail time - up to three years on each count - rather than fines of no more than $100 on each count, all related to his allegedly failing to obey state laws that prohibit defacing public property with posters, even those that are later exhibited at waterfront art museums.

Innocent, etc.

Dave Combs says he was in the cab with Shepard Fairey when Fairey was arrested outside the ICA. And he says that but for a couple of wrong turns by their cab driver, Boston Police would have arrested Fairey right at the entrance to the ICA, instead of out in the parking lot, deliberately provoking a riot to embarrass Tom Menino over his wage-freeze proposal, like this:

... The unmarked SUV follows our cab and drives right up to the front entrance of the glass-facade ICA with 800 of Shepard's fans inside and outside hyped on adrenaline excitedly watching, waiting for him to arrive. The SUV swoops in and the undercover cops emerge to seize Shepard right in front of all those fans. Now, I was in that crowd later that night, and I can be sure that at least a handful of those guys I met inside wouldn't have just stood there without doing something. It might have been that they ran out and shouted obscenities at the cops who were arresting Shepard, or they might have simply lost their minds and just mobbed the cops depending on the number of people who ran out, all while the cameras were rolling. Either way, something ugly certainly would have jumped off, and whatever happened it would have played right into the hands of the Boston Police Department and helped them hand the Mayor his ass on a platter. Remember, Mayor Menino was photographed just two days earlier congratulating Shepard and welcoming him to Boston. ...

Hey, I don't write this stuff, I just link to it.

Booking photo courtesy Suffolk County District Attorney's office. Art via Obamafy Yourself.

The Herald talks to Boston's top graffiti cop (yes, of course Boston has one) about his arrest of the street-art guy:

... "He's always been a big problem," Kelley said. "He'd go from city to city to do this." ...

He's also the guy who brought down the tagger known as Spek.

You can't make this stuff up: The Globe reports that Shepard Fairey, whose iconic posters are plastered everywhere these days, was arrested while about to enter the ICA, which is hosting an exhibit of his work. Those pesky outstanding warrants reared their ugly heads, although police were unable/unwilling to tell the paper just what they were for.

Ginny Delany, 27, a graduate student from Cambridge, said, "It makes him even more of a hero to me."

The other day, I left my hermit's cave and actually ventured into Kenmore Square for a lunch engagement. Andre the Giant and oversized Red Revolutionary Peasant Women stared at me from every available surface, it seemed (except, of course from the world's largest anti-gun poster and the soft green that surrounds our local field of dreams). It was quite a shock for a country boy from the sticks, where the public art consists of a) A bust of Alexander the Great and b) Gang tags on the pedestrian bridge over the Amtrak tracks.

Anyway, UnlikelyWords reports on Fairey's talk at the ICA:

... There was a lot to like. Fairey was enthusiastic and genuinely seemed to enjoy talking about his art. He didn’t come off as pretentious or idealistic, which is always a possibility with celebrities famous for their political activism. ...

Ryan Weaver also reports on Fairey's talk.

Kerry, meanwhile, reports Fairey showed up at his club to do some DJing (as DJ Diabetic):

... He was also a really nice guy, posing for photos and signing Obey propaganda. And the best part was to both of our surprise, he was repping the Proletariat. ...

Finally, Dan Kennedy explains why AP would likely lose a copyright suit against Fairey for basing his iconic Hope memey thing on one of its photos.