Woman sentenced to community service for mosque thefts
A Glendale mother who pleaded guilty to removing items from a Tempe mosque last year was sentenced Tuesday morning to community service and supervised probation.
Tahnee Gonzales was sentenced to 225 hours of community service and two years of supervised probation during proceedings before Judge Mark Brain in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Gonzales also was ordered to write a letter of apology to the Islamic Community Center of Tempe, but the defense contested that requirement.
Gonzales’ attorney Marc Victor asked the judge to consider the letter requirement as having been met because she previously sent an apology letter to the mosque.
The prosecution told the judge they disagreed because the mosque was not satisfied with the first letter. The judge said he will review the letter and decide.
In a statement to the judge, Gonzales said her actions were “vile” and she is sorry for the precedent she has set for her children, who were present when she and Elizabeth Dauenhauer filmed a video of the burglary in March 2018. Her attorney said that the real crime in this case is that Gonzales was “horribly uneducated,” adding that she acted out of ignorance.
“I thank you again for this opportunity to publicly say I am sorry for my decision to attack one of the most sacred of all liberties that I hold near and dear to my heart,” Gonzales said, before thanking the judge for making a decision “tempered with grace and mercy.”
Victor asked the judge to take into account the public humiliation his client has experienced since the incident.
“I’m not saying it’s an unjust punishment,” he said. “She earned it and she deserves it and she’s suffering from it, but it’s something this court ought to consider.”
He said his client could be an agent to help facilitate peace between Muslims and non-Muslims.
He said Gonzales was open to the idea of giving speeches to groups that currently hold the same beliefs she espoused in the video in an effort to show them the error of their ways.
Victor said he hopes that people “on both sides” will give Gonzales a chance to prove how much she’s changed in the past 14 months.
“They think they know what’s still in her heart and that’s just as sad, judge,” he said. “It’s just as prejudicial, it’s just as wrong, it’s just as unfair.”
“She’s going to be a force for good, judge. She’s taking the lemons from this case and making lemonade from it.”
Gonzales and her legal team held a press conference outside of her counsel’s Chandler-based firm shortly after the sentencing.
Gonzales gave a brief statement to the press in which she called her actions “reprehensible” and “abhorrent.”
“I was taken by the sensationalism of the media coverage on a conservative media outlet,” she said. “I am deeply remorseful for my actions that brought my misdirected passionate patriotism into question.”
She said she strives “to exemplify what a model citizen looks like.”
During the sentencing Brain said he hoped the ordeal would teach Gonzales a lesson about the pitfalls of stereotypes and generalizations.
“I hope your attorney is right that you’ve figured this out, that Muslims are not all terrorists any more than Christians are all Timothy McVeighs,” he said.
He wished Gonzales luck after delivering his sentence.
“I guess I don’t know where the kind of hatred that got us here comes from, but hopefully you’ve sorted it out and are going to make a change,” he said.
Gonzales, 33, pleaded guilty in May to aggravated criminal damage, according to court records.
Dauenhauer was sentenced in November to 18 months of supervised probation and 200 hours of community service for aggravated criminal damage.