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Lauren Kirk-Coehlo pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony vandalism and hate crime enhancements for vandalizing the Davis Islamic Center in January.
The Davis woman entered her plea in Yolo Superior Court in Woodland hours before she was to face a preliminary hearing on the charges related to the Jan. 22 incident.
Kirk-Coehlo, 30, was arrested Feb. 14 on suspicion of breaking six of the Davis mosque’s windows, damaging several bicycles at the mosque and wrapping pork around the handle of one of the mosque’s exterior doors, Davis police said. Muslims are forbidden to eat or touch pork.
“We welcome the plea. We hope this sends the message that committing hate crimes doesn’t pay off,” said Saad Sweilem, civil rights attorney for the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “For our community, it gives a lot of comfort that there are consequences to these actions and that we are being protected.”