A Champaign man will appear in court next month after being detained by University Police last week on the charge of criminal defacement to property.

Randal Fulk, 66, was issued a notice to appear by University Police last Thursday at 7:45 a.m. at the Henry Administration Building, 506 S. Wright St.In this particular incident, Fulk was suspected to be responsible for marking graffiti in the first-floor bathroom with a permanent marker.

Fulk, who earned his doctorate at the University and worked in the library as a clerk, left in the late 1990s. He is also suspected to be responsible for many other cases of similar graffiti, which took place in the Henry Administration Building, Lincoln Hall and Gregory Hall.

Deputy Chief Skip Frost, UIPD, said Officer Eric Stiverson was out on foot when he addressed the incident and contacted Fulk.

“They had just cleaned this stall where we had seen so much of the graffiti,” Frost said. “After our officer checked it, there was only one person in there between the time that it was cleaned and nobody else went in there. This subject was in there and the officer contacted him, went in there and there was fresh graffiti, which matched up with a lot of the other ones.”

Frost said the markings were mostly negative and derogatory toward the University, including comments about this year’s commencement speaker, Shahid Khan. Fulk was issued a notice to appear in court, rather than being arrested and taken to jail, because of health concerns. Fulk was also issued a letter of no trespass.

The cost of damages, which Facilities & Services is addressing, have not yet been calculated.

“When you start adding up the cost of clean-up and repair — and some of them have been cleaned up and repaired so much they’re going to have to be replaced — I’ll guarantee it’ll be in the thousands of dollars,” Frost said.

Carl Wegel, director of operations, maintenance and alterations for Facilities & Services, said the graffitied restroom partitions are being taken down and held as evidence while police pursue the case. He said the cost of repairs will come out of the maintenance department’s budget if no restitution is paid in the case.

“We’re all impacted by that,” Wegel said. “It’s a waste of resources. Not only that, it degrades the appearance of the campus.”

Sari can be reached at [email protected] and @Sari_Lesk.