Is It Art Up-Date

It's enough to give a guy a persecution complex.

Gheorghiu's attorney, Peter Bibring, said deputies told him they planned to show that Gheorghiu's possession of graffiti tools was a violation of his probation and also merited new charges.

"It raises extreme 1st Amendment issues," said Bebring, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. "The government shouldn't be in a position of saying you can't make art from certain materials."

Gheorghiu, 34, told The Times on Tuesday that he was not home when deputies searched his house. He said they removed an artwork, some art supplies and his computer. He said he was ordered to surrender to deputies for an alleged probation violation related to possession of vandalism tools. Gheorghiu, however, said that a judge at a prior hearing had deemed his art tools exempt from the terms of his probation.