Bronx man found guilty of racist African Burial Ground vandalism

A federal judge has found a Bronx man guilty of vandalism for writing a racist message with a black marker on a signpost at the African Burial Ground National Monument near City Hall.

On the morning of Nov. 1, Ivan Nieves, 57, of the Bronx, strolled by the monument and wrote “Kill N——” on an informational sign entitled “A Place of Remembrance.”

But while Magistrate Judge Ona Wang found Nieves guilty of vandalism, she found the Bronx man not guilty of the disorderly conduct charge against him.

Wang did not provide an explanation as to why she found Nieves guilty of one count and not the other, but federal prosecutors argued that Nieves should also be convicted of disorderly conduct because he wrote the message at a public monument with the intent to cause violence against African Americans.

“He didn’t write these words on a bathroom stall,” said Jacob Fiddelman, a prosecutor who fought the government’s case.

Wang delivered the verdict after a one-day bench trial that included testimony from three witnesses and video clips captured by surveillance cameras at the site.

Michael Diaz, an NYPD hate crimes detective who investigated the case, testified at the trial that investigators were able to identify Nieves with the help of grainy surveillance videos in the area and by interviewing Nieves’ sister, who works at an office right next to the monument and who met with Nieves and lent him money just before he wrote on the sign.

Prior to the trial, Nieves’ attorneys argued unsuccessfully that the charges should be dropped because his “vile, racist and reprehensible” message was protected speech.

The burial ground was used for the interment of African slaves who lived and died in New York in the 17th and 18th centuries. The site was all but forgotten for centuries until 1991, when plans were drawn up to construct a federal office building at the site and human remains were unearthed during an archaeological dig.

President George W. Bush dedicated the site as a national monument in 2006.