Police have charged two Harpswell men after they allegedly painted a swastika and other antisemitic graffiti on a road in their town.
William Deary, 49, and his son, Hayden Deary, 18, have been charged with criminal mischief for the incident.
The graffiti, as described by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office in a news release, was painted over the weekend of Jan. 12-15 on the roadway at the intersection of Stevens Corner Road and Harpswell Islands Road and included a swastika and an unnamed reference to holocaust that was “determined to be hate speech toward the Jewish Community at large.”
Details and circumstances uncovered in the investigation led the investigators to believe the cases might rise to the level of civil rights violations, “both on the state level and possibly federally,” according to the sheriff’s office
The investigation is being referred to the attorney general’s office for review.
The Dearys are scheduled to appear in West Bath District Court on April 16.