This is not the first time Karl Freudenberger has been charged with crimes involving churches, records show.
By JAY CRIDLIN
Published August 19, 2003
BRANDON - A 22-year-old man was arrested Monday after weekend vandalism caused $20,000 in fire damage and broken windows at a Brandon church and left graffiti and damage at nearby businesses.
Karl Freudenberger, whose last known address was in Seffner, was charged with burglary, arson, two counts of felony criminal mischief and one count of misdemeanor criminal mischief.
He confessed to the crimes in an interview with Hillsborough County sheriff's investigators, said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Rod Reder.
Sheriff's officials say Freudenberger broke into Apostles Lutheran Church on Kingsway Road around 2 a.m. Saturday, breaking windows and setting fire to the sanctuary.
Deputies said he then walked to First United Methodist Church, where he broke several more windows, and on to several businesses on Robertson Street and Brandon Boulevard, where he spray-painted swastikas, pentagrams and upside-down crosses.
Handlee Vige, pastor at Apostles Lutheran Church, which sustained the bulk of the damage, said Freudenberger was not, to his knowledge, a member of the church.
"It's not anyone that we know," he said.
The arrest came after a tip from a family in the community, Vige said. The family came to church officials after hearing about the vandalism, mentioning a man who "fit the description ... in terms of the mindset and the activities," Vige said.
Freudenberger has an extensive criminal background, with at least 13 arrests in Hillsborough County since October 1999, including several for burglary, trespassing and marijuana possession.
In 2001, he was arrested at Nativity Catholic Church in Brandon and was charged with criminal mischief to a place of worship, trespassing on church grounds with a weapon and possession of burglary tools, according to court records. He pleaded guilty to the criminal mischief charge and was fined.
A month after that incident, Freudenberger was found trespassing on church grounds with burglary tools, according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement criminal background check. He was not arrested in that incident.
In this past weekend's vandalism, nothing was stolen from the churches and businesses. At Apostles Lutheran, for example, the vandal left behind a cash box, musical instruments and several pieces of electronic equipment.
The blaze apparently started late Friday or early Saturday when someone lit a Christian flag and a stack of informational pamphlets on fire, said church administrator Ron Beisecker.
"Then they threw the American flag into the fire," he said.
The flames ran up the sanctuary wall, forcing parishioners to hold Sunday services in a nearby church social hall. A concert planned for Sunday night was canceled.
"It may be three or four weeks before we're able to get back into the building," Beisecker said. "You can get in, but the soot is so bad, we'd just be grinding it into everything until the cleanup process has taken place."
Already, though, Apostles Lutheran has been approached by other area churches willing to donate money and cleanup volunteers.
"It's just amazing that, here's an individual that tried to hurt us, and in so doing, has blessed us," Vige said. "It's drawing the congregation closer together. We had people who were even here on Saturday ready to go to work to clean up."
The Rev. Eric Thompson, executive pastor of United Methodist, said Sunday services went on as planned, as did a Saturday night concert. Cleanup also has begun at nearby vandalized businesses.
Reder didn't know whether state attorneys would consider the vandalism a hate crime. Prosecutors will review Monday's taped interview with sheriff's investigators. If they believe Freudenberger was acting violently toward a group based on their religious beliefs, a hate crime charge could come in the next few weeks, Reder said.
For his part, Beisecker is convinced the graffiti left by the vandal is grounds for a hate crime charge.
"If you look at the pentagrams and the upside-down crosses and the words they wrote, yes, it looks like a definite hate crime," Beisecker said.
Vige said he hopes the church is ready and willing to move past the damage and begin the healing process.
"We must be in prayer for those who did this," he said.
- Times photographer Skip O'Rourke and researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Jay Cridlin can be reached at 661-2442.
