Nantucket man indicted in probe of racist graffiti

NANTUCKET — A Nantucket man has been indicted on a charge he misled an investigation into racist graffiti spray-painted across the door of the historic African Meeting House in 2018. 

A Barnstable County grand jury returned an indictment against 51-year-old Jeffrey Sayle, according to an Oct. 8 statement from Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe's office.

The Museum of African American History, also known as the African Meeting House, was defaced in March 2018 with racist and sexually explicit images.

Nantucket police investigated the vandalism but asked the district attorney’s office to take over in the summer of 2019.

The district attorney’s office requested that the sitting Barnstable grand jury be made into a statewide grand jury to hear the case. The grand jury heard evidence for more than six months starting in March.

Civilian and law enforcement witnesses testified and produced evidence, including forensic personnel from the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, according to the statement. After all available evidence was presented, the grand jury issued a finding of no probable cause for one individual and indicted Sayle on a charge of misleading an investigation.

The grand jury has been discharged, but the matter remains open in case additional evidence comes to light, according to the statement.

Charity-Grace Mofsen, who was associate director of operations at the African Meeting House when the vandalism occurred, is one of many islanders who have demanded some form of justice for the crime.

“It’s unfortunate that it has taken over two years, and it’s great that there has been some sort of movement (with the case),” she said. “But honestly this raises more questions than it answers. How was the investigation being misled and for what reasons?

“The fact that so many of us believe that there are people on this island who know who did it, and there are people who are protecting the individual or individuals that did it, that doesn’t feel comforting,” she said. “This is an incredibly small island when it comes to secrets, and people know. It really is just a matter of those who know speaking up.”

Material from the Inquirer and Mirror was used in this report.