Las Vegas NowRacial Graffiti Used To Avoid Eviction

Racial Graffiti Used To Avoid Eviction

(Aug. 5) -- A hate crime affects an entire community when one group is targeted with racial slurs. The whole neighborhood responded with outrage when someone scrawled racial slurs on one home. But there is a new twist on that story that has made the neighborhood even more upset.

The couple who were living here has since moved out, but before one of them left the state he admitted that his girlfriend had the racial slurs painted on the home to try to avoid eviction.

The graffiti was painted over after the Feb. 24 incident, but the hateful words of "No N***** Allowed" had pierced the neighborhood.

The owner of the home, Lois Grillo, lived in the house for 33 years before she allowed a Hispanic woman and her African-American boyfriend to move in as the couple was in the process of buying the house.

Grillo was shocked that someone would paint the racial slurs on the home.

"I kind of knew in my heart that it couldn't be anyone else in this neighborhood because they welcomed everybody," she said.

Grillo's suspicions were right: According to a police report, the man who was living there made a voluntary statement before he moved out of town in July. He claims that his ex-girlfriend had the racial slurs painted because they were going to be evicted when their house-purchase fell through.

"She had her sons do it," Grillo said. She bought the paint and told them to do it. It was disclosed by her boyfriend who confessed that he didn't want to be a part of it."

Jim Schwitalla, a neighbor, has lived here for 19 years and believed everyone in the neighborhood got along well. That's why he's relieved that it wasn't a racial incident among neighbors.

"Everybody is welcome here as long as you do everything by the law," he said. "It's outrageous that somebody would make up something like that to accuse someone else of doing something wrong."

Allen Lichtenstein, an attorney with the ACLU, says that if it's proven true, then it's a shame that someone would use racism as a false claim.

"That's unfortunate, because it does tend to distract from the very serious issue of racism and bigotry that really does exist," he said.

We tried to contact the woman who allegedly had the racial slurs painted on the home, but she has a new unlisted phone number and address. She could be charged for making a false statement, but because her ex-boyfriend has moved out of state it will be up to the district attorney's office if they want to bring him back here to try to prosecute this woman on a misdemeanor crime.

To contact Cindy Cesare, click here.