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Danielle Bremner.
A notorious international graffiti queen - accused of tagging trains and buildings from Chicago to New York to the capitals of Europe - will be hauled to the Hub to face charges she caused millions in damages to Back Bay brownstones, the Herald has learned.
Danielle Bremner, a 26-year-old former New York art student, is facing roughly 40 counts of graffiti vandalism in Boston Municipal Court - each carrying up to two years in jail or $1,500 in fines.
The Boston Police Fugitive Apprehension Unit is currently preparing to travel to New York to take custody of Bremner.
"You can't just come to Boston, tag and run off," said BPD Detective Bill Kelley. "We'll come and get you."
It's been more than two years since Boston police first busted Bremner scurrying from train tracks near the Massachusetts Turnpike in Allston with Jim Clay Harper, 23, her boyfriend and alleged accomplice.
The duo - often called the Bonnie and Clyde of tagging - were clad in dark, paint-spattered clothes and gloves, spray cans jingling away in backpacks, an array of nozzles in their pockets. The squiggly bubble letters Bremner left behind would become all too familiar: "Utah."
It's a tag authorities say has turned up in Pittsburgh, Toronto, Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid.
Bremner pleaded guilty in Brighton Court and got probation.
Yet Kelley says Bremner is the "premier member" of the infamous crew "Dirty 30," a global graffiti ring that ranks members based on their level of daring.
Authorities in Chicago finally caught Bremner last month getting off a plane at O'Hare International Airport. She was extradited to New York to face a slew of felony vandalism charges there.
"They say that the difference between graffiti and art is permission," Kelley said of the graffiti subculture philosophy. "But there's really no artistic purpose behind it. It's almost like a thrill-seeking, anti-authority thing."
Cops say Bremner's tag war with alleged Bay State vandal Adam "Spek" Brandt defaced buildings from Boston to Salem.
But Bremner's spraying spree in the Back Bay was where she met her fiercest foe - graffiti buster Anne Swanson of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay.
One day two years ago, Swanson, 62, caught a glimpse of Utah's handiwork in a commercial alleyway. "The graffiti was so deafening," she said. "It's like visual noise - just screaming at you."
Enraged, Swanson began to photograph and document the dozens of tags left by "Utah" and other career vandals - accumulating a thick book of research that would help investigators secure the charges against her.
With Swanson's help, Kelley and MBTA Transit Police Lt. Nancy O'Loughlin launched a joint investigation with the Salem police and other agencies to snare Bremner and Brandt in December 2007. Swanson said she's puzzled by Bremner.
Said Swanson: "What is the glory of tagging a Dumpster?"
http://bostonherald.com/news/region...!_you_re_it!:_Alleged_graffiti_vandal_nabbed/