The Roanoke Times

File 2006 Matthew Alan Hanson was one of two men charged with felony destruction of property and grand larceny in the theft the Hokie Bird statue "Motion Technology for Sea, Land, Air and Space."

CHRISTIANSBURG -- The letters to a Montgomery County judge on behalf of a Virginia Tech student who broke a Hokie Bird statue off its base more than a year ago say the same thing: Matthew Alan Hanson is a good person who just made a mistake.

Hanson, 22, was one of two men charged with felony destruction of property and grand larceny in the theft of "Motion Technology for Sea, Land, Air and Space," the Hokie Bird statue that stood in front of Moog Components Group on North Main Street in Blacksburg.

The destruction of property charge against Michael Scott Russell, 21, was dropped after Hanson admitted to jumping on the $7,500 statue, breaking it off its base the morning of Dec. 3, 2006. He had been drinking heavily, he said, and didn't intend to break the statue when he jumped on it.

Russell and Hanson took the broken statue back to their nearby apartment.

Circuit Court Judge Ray Grubbs took the remaining charges against both men under advisement for a year. Russell is due back in court in September.

Hanson was in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Friday morning. He presented the judge with a bound 31-page booklet filled with information divided into four categories: restitution, community service, addiction rehabilitation and character references.

The packet, which contains logs for therapy meetings and community service and 14 letters of support, was an effort by Hanson to show the judge he has worked hard to make up for the damage he caused.

Grubbs said he was impressed by the booklet's contents. Still, he decided to continue the case for another year.

"Sometimes good can come out of adverse circumstances," he told Hanson.

Grubbs placed Hanson on unsupervised probation for the next year and told him that if he continues on the same path, he plans to dismiss the charges or at least reduce them to misdemeanors.

"What happens then is up to you," he told Hanson, "but your progress is great and I commend you for it."

"I'm really sorry for everything that happened," Hanson said after the hearing, which his parents attended. "I do think these birds are wonderful, and I do think they represent the area well."

He still goes to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, even though an evaluation found that he isn't an alcoholic. He still is involved with Habitat for Humanity and the Chesapeake Bay Field Lab in Maryland, where he is from. He has performed more than 200 hours of community service with the organizations.

"All of the people who were touched by this incident support Mr. Hanson," his attorney, John Robertson, said after Friday's hearing.

One of the letters Hanson submitted is from Ernie Wade, who was Moog's general manager when the bird disappeared.

In the letter, Wade said that when he arrived in his office the Monday after the theft, Hanson and his father were waiting to see him.

Hanson admitted his guilt, Wade wrote, "and offered to do whatever was necessary to make restitution including coming to work in our factory."

"With his debt to society fully fulfilled," Wade wrote to Grubbs, "I would request that his case be closed and all charges dropped in order for him to move forward with his education and life."