HILLCREST – “Today we’re going to tell you the good end of the terrible story,” said District Attorney Summer Stephan. The tale began with a hate crime.

Last summer, 18 trash cans with “Welcome to Hillcrest” signs, three painted utility boxes, two businesses’ exterior walls and a mural in mural alley were defaced with swastikas and anti-gay slurs. Stephan condemned the incident as not just property damage, but one that spread shame, fear and disrespect through an entire community.

“It’s something that lingers in the back of your head that you’re not even safe at home,” said Patric Stillman, who owns art gallery Studio Door along mural alley.

Months later, Stephan was back in the historic LGBTQ+ neighborhood to announce that in a plea deal for the misdemeanor hate crime vandalism charge,

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