WARNING: This report contains graphic words and images.
Lee Yoshimatsu knew the political sign in his yard would get attention – that was the goal.
What he didn’t anticipate was multiple visits from Wickenburg police officers telling him that his anti-Trump messages and images were illegal.
“Quite frankly, I was ready to take the signs down after the 2022 election until I got a visit from police,” he said. “And that’s when I got annoyed.”
[Editor’s note: Due to the controversial content of his sign, Lee asked ABC15 to use a last name he uses for business for this report.]
Yoshimatsu’s sign is really four signs combined into one.
It’s changed multiple times since he put it up in late summer in 2022. Currently, three have graphic messages and/or images about former President Donald Trump. The fourth is a sign supporting Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego.
“It was meant to quote trigger people and get them to think, ‘Gee is that what those ‘F Biden’ signs do to people,” Yoshimatsu said.
Free speech experts said that Yoshimatsu’s sign is clearly protected free speech.
“There’s nothing about the First Amendment that requires you to be polite, and not rude, and not crude,” said Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
He added, “These are political views. The most protected speech in America from the very beginning has to do with speech that says, ‘This guy’s a bum, let’s throw him out of office, or not elect him.’ That’s at the core of the First Amendment.”
ABC15 obtained police reports showing that Wickenburg police supervisors have visited Yoshimatsu’s home twice about the sign. The officers told him the sign was illegal and was a felony to have the images up.
The first documented visit was on October 24, 2022. The second was on May 3, 2023.
In between, Yoshimatsu said a pair of men riding in a Wickenburg police SUV yelled at him, calling the sign “bullshit.” Yoshimatsu said he complained to the department and was told the men in the car were civilian volunteers.
He feels the intent was to intimidate him.
“I think that’s exactly what they were trying to do,” he said. “I think they’re trying to intimidate me into taking down the signs.”
Yoshimatsu recorded the May police visit on a personal body camera. It shows the officer suggesting that he should cover up part of the sign because he believed the image that superimposed a “penis head” where Trump’s hair should be was indecent exposure.
“When I look at it, what you’re doing right now is committing a criminal act,” said Sgt. Brandon Dalley. “And I’m giving you an opportunity to correct yourself.”
Following the visit, police also contacted the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which told him the sign was protected speech, records show.
“The only limits that we have on things that are sexual in America has to do with things that are obscene,” Paulsen said. “Largely, it has to appeal to sexual urges. It has to have an erotic element with no redeeming value.”
A police spokesperson told ABC15 that neighbors had complained and that’s why they made visits about the sign.
As for Yoshimatsu, a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, he doesn’t know what he will do from here.
But given what’s happened, he sees his sign as a larger symbol.
“If we lost 58,200 some men and women in Vietnam, why did we do that if we can have police running around and trying to intimidate for a sign,” he said.
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
