William DeFoor, 26, damaged Vice President JD Vance’s family home in Cincinnati early Monday morning due to mental health issues and not politics, his attorney said. Photo Courtesy of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office
Jan. 6 (UPI) — The man accused of vandalizing Vice President JD Vance’s home in Cincinnati has a history of mental health issues, his defense attorney said in court Tuesday.
William DeFoor, 26, was arrested and is accused of vandalizing the Vance home at 12:15 a.m. EST on Monday while the vice president and second lady Usha Vance were in Washington, D.C.
DeFoor’s attorney, Paul Laufman, made the mental health claim during his client’s arraignment hearing in Hamilton County Municipal Court on Tuesday.
Laufman said the vandalism was not politically motivated, and Judge Janaya Trotter Bratton ordered DeFoor to post an $11,000 bond to be released from custody.
DeFoor writes “peaceful” prose in his poems, and his using a hammer to damage a vehicle driven by a federal agent watching Vance’s home and then several windows on the home were not intended as a political statement, Laufman told the court.
“I just don’t think there’s anything political going on,” Laufman said.
DeFoor is accused of felony damage, criminal trespass, criminal damage and obstructing official business.
He has a history of mental health-related cases heard by the Hamilton County Mental Health Court and has been arrested multiple times for vandalism.
When DeFoor arrived outside of Vance’s home, he tried to break the windows of a Secret Service vehicle that was blocking the driveway, according to a criminal complaint filed by FBI Assistant Special Agent Gavin Hartsell.
A Secret Service agent and Cincinnati police announced their presence and ordered DeFoor to “stop and drop the weapon” he was holding, Hartsell wrote.
“DeFoor ignored all commands and began to use a hammer to break glass windows,” located on the front of Vance’s home, he said.
Hartsell described the windows as “large, historic windows” that contained “enhanced security assets” owned by the federal government. He estimated the cost of damage at $28,000.
Vance on Monday said a “crazy person tried to break in by hammering the windows” on his family’s home and thanked the Secret Service and Cincinnati police for quickly responding to the matter in a social media post.