Los Angeles, Calif., May 12, 2010 / 03:36 am
The 76-year-old Mojave Desert Cross, a veterans’ memorial which survived a federal court order to remove it from the Mojave National Preserve, was torn down by vandals on Sunday night. Veterans’ groups decried the “disgraceful” vandalism and offered a $25,000 reward for the perpetrators’ capture.
According to the Mojave National Preserve, National Park Service staff reported the cross missing on Monday morning after they went to the site.
Before a Supreme Court ruling in April, the cross had been covered with a plywood box in obedience to a lower court’s order. The U.S. high court ruled that lower courts did not take sufficient notice of the government’s decision to transfer the land to private ownership, adding that federal judges went too far in ordering the removal of a congressionally endorsed war memorial.
A former National Park Service employee, Frank Buono, sued to have the cross removed or covered after the proposed erection of a Buddhist memorial nearby was not approved.