“CRIME NOT OF HATE, BUT OF LOVE”

When 73-year old Dennis Heiner went before State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber, he knew he could get a year in jail and a $5,000 fine. His crime? Painting over the dung-laden portrait, “The Holy Virgin Mary,” that was featured at the Brooklyn Museum of Art last year.

But on November 14, Justice Farber slapped Heiner with a $250 fine. Farber concluded, “this was a crime committed not out of hate but out of love for the Virgin Mary.”