The man accused of being Poster Boy – a notorious subway vandal who turns platform ads into biting social commentary with the stroke of a razor – thumbed his nose at Brooklyn prosecutors yesterday and turned down a deal that would have kept him out of jail.
Henry Matyjewicz, 27, rejected an arrangement in which he would plead guilty to the top charge of criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, and perform 100 hours of community service. Instead, he’ll be back in court in April to face the possibility of trial, which could land him in jail for up to a year.
Prosecutors declined to comment on whether the offer was off the table.
Matyjewicz had no comment as he left Brooklyn criminal court, but flashed “victory” signs with both hands.
Just as he did in an online video that helped nail him, he wore his scarf bandit-style, hiding the lower half of his face.
“Of course it was rejected,” his lawyer, Kerry Gotlib, said of the plea-deal offer, adding that his client is a “well-educated, well-spoken citizen.”
“My client is innocent of the charges.”
Matyjewicz was arrested last month after cops were tipped that the guerrilla artist would be attending a SoHo loft party where some of his work was going to be shown.
After detectives overheard Matyjewicz discussing his work at the party, they invited him down to the station house for a chat – during which he allegedly admitted vandalizing the L and G train station at Lorimer Street in Williamsburg.
Sources said he tried to work out a deal with the cops.
“I gave you information about the Lorimer station subway incident, and you were not looking for information on that, so why can’t you give me a break?” he allegedly asked.
He was perhaps referring to a YouTube video that shows Poster Boy slicing and dicing in the Fulton Street G train station in Fort Greene.
Most of Poster Boy’s projects involve slicing images from one ad and pasting them onto another, creating new images and words.
“I don’t have anything planned except what line I’m going to head up,” he says in a voiceover in the online video. “Nothing ever planned, just go there, see something, get inspired, and do the work.”