Matthew Henshaw of Fort Myer, Va. (Photo courtesy of Arlington County government)
Police in Arlington announced on Friday evening that they have arrested two men for allegedly stealing LGBTQ Pride flags from the home of a lesbian couple who reported their flags were stolen on five separate days between September 2023 and January 2024.
In a statement, police said they charged Matthew Henshaw, 20, of Fort Myer, Va., with three counts of Unlawful Entry – Bias Motivated and three counts of Petit Larceny for the flag thefts that occurred Sept. 16, Sept. 30 and Jan. 27. The statement says he was released on a secured bond.
The statement says Arlington police also arrested Joseph Digregorio, 23, of Bay Shore, N.Y., on one count of Petit Larceny for the flag theft that occurred on Jan. 21. He was released on a summons, according to the police statement.
“This remains an active criminal investigation,” the police statement says. “Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact the Arlington County Police Department’s Tip Line at 703-228-4180 or ACPDTIpline@arlingtonva.us.”
Police spokesperson Ashley Savage declined to disclose whether Henshaw is a member of the U.S. military, possibly the U.S. Army, in response to a question from the Washington Blade. The police announcement says Henshaw is “of Fort Myer, Va.,” which is a U.S. Army base located a short distance from the house where the lesbian couple lives and where the flags were stolen. The couple lives in the 200 block of South Courthouse Road, according to information released by police.
Online court records show that Henshaw was scheduled to appear for an arraignment at Arlington General District Court at 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8.
“Within hours after it would come down, we would put it back up,” Michaelle Logan, 30, told the Washington Post in describing the repeated thefts of the couple’s Pride flag. “It was just a constant wave of putting it back up and it being taken down,” she told the police in a Jan. 29 Post story.
Logan and her partner, Jenna Burnett, 27, also told the Post that their home security camera captured images of a man wearing a cowboy hat pulling down the flag on two of the five times it was removed.
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