Pittsburgh man charged with defacing woman's Israeli flag could enter probationary program

A man charged with vandalizing an Israeli flag outside a Jewish woman’s Pittsburgh home is hammering out a deal with prosecutors that would clear his record if he completes the terms of a probationary program.

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office on Monday offered Mario Ashkar, 36, of Pittsburgh’s North Side, a tentative agreement to enter the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program.

Prosecutors made the offer while Ashkar was appearing in Pittsburgh Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing, which he waived.

Ashkar is accused of taking the flag on April 19 from a home in the Mexican War Streets neighborhood, damaging it and throwing it away.

The victim’s video cameras recorded the crime, according to a criminal complaint.

Police identified Ashkar as the man in the video and charged him with ethnic intimidation and criminal mischief.

“This act was clearly done to intimidate and harass and annoy the victim for no legitimate purpose, and based on her religion and ethnicity, because she is Jewish, and supports Israel,” the complaint said.

Investigators noted a rise in antisemitism in light of the Israel-Hamas war.

Ashkar was fired from his job as a contractor with Pittsburgh’s Department of Parks and Recreation after his arrest.

It was the second time Ashkar was terminated from a city position, and it sparked an internal investigation into the improper manner in which he was paid by city credit cards.

Defense attorney Adam Bishop, who represents Ashkar, said his client wrote an apology letter to the victim, which she received in court.

The woman asked if she and Ashkar could meet to try to understand each other’s positions, Bishop said, and Ashkar agreed.

“I think he is very sorry he had anything to do with making the victim feel unsafe,” Bishop said.

A judge must sign off on Ashkar entering the probationary program, which is run through the courts.

He must serve 12 months of probation and perform 20 hours of community service with a Jewish nonprofit organization in order to complete the terms of the program.

Once that happens, which could be earlier than a year, the charges will be dismissed and Ashkar’s record will be expunged.

The same woman who was the victim in the Ashkar case was also victimized several other times. Ashkar is not accused of those incidents.

In one instance, someone pasted antisemitic, pro-Palestine pictures and propaganda on her front door and glass windows. The person then spray-painted the message “For Blood and Soil” — a nationalist slogan used in Nazi Germany — on the sidewalk in front of her house.

In a different incident, the woman received antisemitic and pro-Palestinian literature, photos and a handwritten note in her mailbox.

On yet another occasion, a different Israeli flag was stomped on and defaced with the message “We Demand Blood.” The flag was later recovered in a nearby alley.

After Ashkar was charged, City Controller Rachael Heisler raised concerns about his employment with the city. He had been working as a contractor in connection with farmers markets.

The city paid Ashkar using city credit cards in violation of municipal policy.

Previously, Ashkar was fired from the city’s Department of Public Safety.

A probe by the city’s Office of Municipal Investigations is ongoing, but Mayor Ed Gainey declined to cooperate with an investigation Heisler wanted to launch through her office.

That inquiry is looking into the misuse of city credit cards, which aren’t intended to pay contractors like Ashkar.

The city paid Ashkar nearly $23,000 on city credit cards over about a year.

Related:

• Pittsburgh parks and recreation director paid contractor in credit card scandal, records show

• Pittsburgh to pay charge linked to contractor scandal amid probe of city credit card use

• Pittsburgh controller, councilman rebuke Gainey over lack of transparency in payment controversy