Redlands Police cited a 16-year-old Highland boy for felony vandalism after a weekend incident damaged a marble statue, light fixtures and shrubbery at the historic Kimberly Crest chateau.

Police will also forward charges against a 20-year-old Highland man in the incident.

Police were alerted shortly before 2 p.m. Saturday, March 15, to the vandalism at Kimberly Crest, the historic chateau which sits amid Prospect Park in the 1300 block of Prospect Drive.

Investigators found the marble statue - known as “Shy Girl,” which depicts a young woman with her hand held demurely to her face - with two fingers broken off. They also found damage to two light fixtures and trees bent to the ground.

Early that same morning, police officers on a routine property check of the park discovered several people drinking in the park at about 2 a.m. The subjects attempted to hide when police arrived but three of them, including a 16-year-old Highland boy, were found and cited for park curfew violations.

Investigators interviewed those subjects Saturday evening and again on Sunday and learned that three others had been involved as well. After interviewing all six subjects, police determined that the six of them had been drinking in the park when they walked to Kimberly Crest and began horseplaying.

One of the subjects removed the globes from two light fixtures and they began to kick one around. The 16-year-old threw the second fixture at the statue, breaking the fingers from one hand.

The group was on their way back to their cars when they were confronted by the patrol officer and cited for curfew violation.

In addition to the 16-year-old cited for felony vandalism, police forwarded charges to the District Attorney’s Office against 20-year-old Matthew Allen Upshaw, also of Highland.

The remaining individuals have not been charged in the vandalism.

Anyone with further information is asked to contact Detective Stephen Crane or Investigator Toshia Wells at (909) 798-7659 or call Redlands Police Dispatch at (909) 798-7681.

Kimberly Crest, a picturesque French chateau style home built in 1897, is a well preserved example of the Victorian Era in California. The 7,000 square foot, three-story chateau sits on a six and one quarter acre estate two miles south of downtown Redlands, and is enjoyed by more than 11,000 visitors annually.

Originally built by Cornelia A. Hill, a widow from New York State, the home was purchased by J. Alfred Kimberly (a co-founder of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation) and Helen Cheney Kimberly in 1905. Their widowed daughter, Mary Kimberly Shirk, lived in the home from 1920 until her death in 1979.

In 1963 there was a community effort to raise money to purchase Prospect Park (a 39 acre botanical park east and adjacent to Kimberly Crest) for the City of Redlands. To motivate support for this project, Mrs. Shirk promised to give her home to the “people of Redlands,” if the needed money was raised. The park was acquired in 1968. The following year the Kimberly-Shirk Association, a non-profit corporation was formed. In her will, Mrs. Shirk left the house to the Association for the people of Redlands.

For more information, visit the Kimberly Crest Association’s website at http://www.kimberlycrest.org/

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