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Man apologizes for defacing LV sign on Strip

A 69-year-old Las Vegas man is apologizing for defacing the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, weeks before he faces a judge on a misdemeanor property damage charge.

Joseph Peter Pepitone Sr. said in an e-mail and interview Tuesday that he was "depressed and incoherent" and "not in the right state of mind due to circumstances beyond my control" when he threw paint on the sign on the south end of the Strip.

Pepitone doesn't deny he did it. A local Fox news crew filmed him in the act.

He said he wanted to demonstrate against a U.S. Senate health care bill, and he thinks he began hallucinating from medications he took that morning.

Pepitone didn't have a lawyer and wasn't sure whether he will plead guilty in court in February.

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