remain under investigation, Sgt. Lawrence Peele, a New Jersey State Police spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
At the hearing, Drelich said that he walked from his nearby
home to the sign on Halsey Road and used a can of spray-paint to spell out the acronym BLM.
The sign is about 400 feet from Strada s house. It was unclear Tuesday whether that had anything to do with where Drelich chose to leave his graffiti. Neither prosecutors nor the defense cited the sheriff s home as a factor during the hearing.
He fled into a cow pasture across the road after he saw a state police trooper vehicle, he said. As he did so, he dropped his cell phone near the roadway.