Daredevil tagger 'Buket' gets nearly four years in prison

"Buket," the daredevil tagger who gained Internet notoriety for his brazen, daylight tagging of a sign over the 101 Freeway and vandalism of a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus, was sentenced today to three years and eight months in state prison.

Cyrus Yazdani, 26, was on probation after pleading guilty in December to 32 felony vandalism counts. In July, he pleaded no contest to one count of felony vandalism and accepted financial responsibility for five vandalism incidents. Four of the counts were dismissed today. Yazdani must pay $117,196 in restitution.

Los Angeles County sheriff's transit investigators arrested Yazdani in May after "Buket" tags appeared on the 7th Street Bridge, the Cesar Chavez Bridge and in the 4200 block of South Broadway.

Sheriff's officials said Yazdani was found in possession of scribers, which are used in tagging. He also had paint splatter on his clothing.

In December, after pleading guilty Yazdani was sentenced to 10 months in county jail, 256 hours of graffiti removal duty and five years' formal probation. He was released from jail based on credit for time served.

That case stemmed from a tagging spree between 2005 and 2007, during which, authorities said, the 26-year-old San Jose State graduate slapped his tags on buses, freeway walls and overpasses as well as the concrete lining of the Los Angeles River.

Yazdani became something of an Internet sensation when he plastered his "Buket" bomb 20 feet above the busy Hollywood Freeway -- vandalism that was captured on videotape and posted with a rap soundtrack on YouTube and numerous tagger-related blogs.

Another daylight attack, which was also videotaped, appeared to show "Buket" applying his moniker to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus as passersby and passengers watched in surprise.

A YouTube video that captured both tagging exploits has more than 450,000 views. But the notoriety also got the attention of sheriff's transit investigators, who arrested Yazdani in May.

Sheriff's officials said they had evidence that Yazdani had marked hundreds of freeway overpasses, concrete walls and transit buses across the state and southern Nevada.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers identified at least 20 "Buket" scrawlings along a stretch of the river spanning a couple of miles, causing an estimated $60,000 in damage.

—Andrew Blankstein

Photo: A Buket tag in the Los Angeles River captured in May 2008.

Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

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Comments

[George]

Buket is the greatest hero in American history.

[Steve]

His sentence should have given him more years in the pen and a larger fine. I hate the word tagger, probably a name given by a gang member,vandal is more like it. There is no art about, defacing my country with all this garbage and to me it is no better than a terrorist act, that causes damages that taxpayers have to pay to clean up. The cost to remove all this garbage over the years would probably balance the CA budget.

[William R. Bauer]

Hooray for LA. Jail is exactly where the likes of this creep should go. Now, go for the others. If they know for sure that they will go to prison, this blight might just disappear.

[Marlena]

Guys got a problem - compulsive and addicted to all this attention. He needs some mental health treatment while in jail

[Big Knowz]

I understand that Johnny Law needs to make an example out of people punking them on you-tube, but 4 years and $100,000 seems a little much. Most of his pieces were in the L.A river. I guess all those tourists that want to see where the big car race scene from "Grease" was filmed are gonna be turned off because of all the graf, but not the human feces and homeless junkies having sex.

[G]

Wow, many of you morons who comment on the times are hateful as well as stupid. Why would you derive so much joy from a graffiti artist going to prison. Graffiti is part of L.A. culture. If it bothers you that much, go back where you came from. Leave Los Angeles to the Angelinos who apreciate it. We'll enjoy the extra space on the 405.

[Robert]

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

BYE BYE BUKET!!!!

[Mark Ecko]

Putting him in jail cost the taxpayers over $50,000 a year. What a waste. Make him clean up his own art. As a former tagger, nothing hurts more than destroying your work.

[Darren Spinelli]

Hard time in jail IS what he needs. Probation will just make him believe he got away with (because he *will* have gotten away with it). Why do you think so many thousands of punks do it now? Because there's no penalty in their minds, so why not do it?

[thecanimalshusband]

If he were a politician, he'd be given a life pension with full medical benefits.

[stine]

I think it ridiculous that someone should be put in prison for doing something as simply as freedom of expression through artwork. Yes it was on public property but putting him in jail is not going to teach him anything at least make him paint over his art work or give him community service hours. I think it is ridiculous that police officials were going after someone for something like tagging, when they should be going after people that are doing more devious things such as rape, murder, or drug abuse. Putting someone in jail with criminals that have a much more intensive record seems outright absurd.

[Thanks for wasting my money]

Awesome. Send the guy to jail for painting over things that don't impede anyone's means of transportation. Now I have to pay for another non-violent offender to live in prison who wasn't hurting anyone. Thanks.

[Virginia Palacios]

$60,000! How much are the people who paint over it getting paid?! Worse, how much is the person who made that estimate getting paid?

[kooo]

$60k for the amount of paint and labor required to erase the amount of tagging. oh well, just fuket.

[Bowman]

Taxpayers will now have to pay the incarceration costs for this guy. Why wasn't community service required instead? It is unlikely that this poor idiot will get rehabilitated -- he'll probably learn more criminal behavior. And, going to jail, it is unlikely that he will raise enough money to ppay the fine. Too bad.

Will other taggers curb their behavior after learning about this hefty prison sentence? I doubt it.

Is tagging really about declaring territory? My dog marks territory with urine -- I see some parallels.

[Jamal]

He definitely deserves it. However, they should punish gang related "tagging" more severely. I live in Northern California, and our cities are full of "Norte" v. "Sur" graffiti. Those people should should be dealt with severely.

[hansjohnson]

i want to be the guy getting paid $60,000 to paint over his tags along the la river. price seems a little inflated right? maybe if they sandblasted the graffiti it would cost some money, but not $60,000. they just paint over it, and when was the last time you saw them paint over anything along the LA river?

[kzkz3232]

FREE BUKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FREE BUKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DOES PAINTING A SURFACE REALLY DESERVE that much time in prison........ WHEN CHILD ABUSERS can be thrown in for one night and come out and keep doing the same thing..... focus the hunt on the ones who harm people physically and mentally... not someone who just likes to paint!

FREE BUKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Briana]

That's sad. If only police were more interested in arresting and convicting people with more egregious acts on their shoulders.

The time that was spent on convicting this person cost more of the tax payers dollars than the alleged spray paint removal costs, I'm sure. $60,000? That's a bit much for the cost of gray paint to cover the art.

[West Valley Dave]

In addition to the time and the fine he should do community service after he gets out by cleaning off all his "art"... with a toothbrush.

[Chuck Hodi]

Defintintely got his 15 min. of fame!

[Haroldt]

absolutely send him to jail...The important concept here is that it is NOT his property to "improve" as he sees fit..

[RICHARD]

Should have thrown his ass under the jail. Now let's get rid of the rest of them.

[Da Maverick]

Oh yeah this makes lots of sense. Send him to State prison, which costs taxpayers about $50k annually.

Just give him unprecedented community service. This is the reason our prisons are overcrowded, stupid people imprison people who would learn nothing from such a punishment. Ugh.

[Da Maverick]

Oh yeah this makes lots of sense. Send him to State prison, which costs taxpayers about $50k annually.

Just give him unprecedented community service. This is the reason our prisons are overcrowded, stupid people imprison people who would learn nothing from such a punishment. Ugh.